Transformative Learning through Creative Life Writing

Chapter 7

Vicissitudes of the dynamic psyche and their consequences for learning and creativity

 

 

 

In the early stages of transformative learning theory change was understood as an individual process of freeing the self from inhibiting psychic mechanisms resulting from upbringing or other negative effects of socialisation, similar to psychodynamic psychotherapies. Mezirow's ideas were strongly influenced by his relationship with psychoanalyst Roger Gould, who was applying a ‘popularised version of psychoanalytic theory to adult development’ (Finger and Asun, 2001: 55). This is visible in his descriptions of ‘perspective transformation’ as fraught with psychological difficulties, including ‘unresolved problems from childhood’ (Mezirow, 1981: ...