Care of the Self: Mythopoetic Dimensions of Professional Preparation and Development

Abstract

Graduate study in higher and adult education prepares adults for professional practice in educational leadership and pedagogy. Central to practice is the self-other relationship, in which the practitioner enters into a relationship with an “other” for purposes of providing a service or bringing about change. Depth psychology suggests that this self-other relationship is imaginatively constructed and characterized by powerful emotional dynamics that often challenge the integrity of the practitioner’s work. To be effective, practitioners must be able to empathically enter into these relationships without denying the other or losing the self. This process requires a deep sense of self-awareness, authenticity, and integrity, a set of personal attributes reflected in the development of self-knowledge. I refer to this process of developing self-knowledge as self-formation. Using a mythopoetic perspective grounded in Jungian and post-Jungian psychology, this chapter explores the process of self-formation in professional preparation within higher and adult education.