eScholarship@McGill
2025
Emma Schmelefske
Background: Non-suicidal self-injury (NSSI) involves intentionally causing damage to bodily tissue without suicidal intent. Though distinct from suicide, NSSI is a strong predictor of both suicidal ideation and attempts. Although NSSI and suicide are each highly prevalent mental health concerns, few interventions exist to address these phenomena. Mindfulness and compassion are two traits that...
eScholarship@McGill
2025
Oren Gurevitch
The phenomenological experience of being immersed while listening to music is one that has been extensively described by literary writers, and is widely experienced by human listeners across cultures. The scientific understanding of the absorption state is however rudimentary. Absorption refers to becoming deeply immersed without distraction. This research project seeks to advance our...
eScholarship@McGill
2023
Serena Mennitto
Pregnancy is usually experienced as a meaningful part of life, though this transition can be a turbulent time. Research suggests that psychological distress during pregnancy can contribute to the development of medical conditions. Recently, mindfulness-based interventions (MBIs) have been studied for their potential role in mitigating psychological and physical health conditions in pregnancy....
eScholarship@McGill
2023
Syeda Shireen
Emotional eating, or overeating in response to negative emotions, is problematic because of its association with an increased risk for overweight and obesity, difficulties losing weight, diabetes, and heart disease. As such, several studies have focused on understanding the mechanisms that underlie this behavior and ways of reducing it. This dissertation consists of three studies that...
eScholarship@McGill
2022
Khaleel Rajwani
Despite the culturally diverse history of psychedelics, dominant cultural assumptions constrain emerging psychedelic healing practices and therapeutic models in contemporary Western biomedical practice. I draw on Kirmayer’s “Psychotherapy and the Cultural Concept of the Person” (2007) to discuss how the emerging model of psychedelic psychotherapy inherits the egocentric cultural concept of self...
eScholarship@McGill
2014
Michael Lifshitz
Behavioural scientists typically classify cognitive processes as either controlled or automatic. Whereas controlled processes are slow and effortful, automatic processes are fast and involuntary. Cognitive researchers have recently begun investigating how top-down influence in the form of suggestion can allow individuals to modulate the automaticity of deeply ingrained processes. The present...
eScholarship@McGill
2013
Clifford M. Cassidy
Introduction. La comorbidité entre les troubles psychotiques et l'abus de substances est associée à une évolution négative. Pour mieux traiter l'abus de substance dans la psychose, il est nécessaire d'identifier les facteurs spécifiques qui augmentent la prévalence de consommation de substances dans cette population, particulièrement les aspects du trouble psychotique qui pourraient exacerber...
eScholarship@McGill
2011
Julie Irving
4 citations
The necessity of providing health care professionals with tangible tools to manage stress and safeguard their own well-being has become increasingly apparent. Rates of burnout in the helping professions are rising; the consequences of clinician distress for patient care have been highlighted in recent literature. Past research has examined the potential for Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction...
eScholarship@McGill
2008
Michelle Rebidoux
This study looks at the phenomenological work of 20th century French thinker Michel Henry (1922-2002). Not yet widely known to an English audience, his work has recently been attracting a growing readership among students of phenomenology as well as among those interested in the so-called 'return of religion' since the last quarter of the 20th century. For those interested in the relation of...
eScholarship@McGill
2000
Kelly S. Johnson
The following thesis focuses on the medieval kabbalistic legend of R. Joseph della Reina who, using traditions of esoteric magic, conjured Satan in order to slaughter him in an unsuccessful bid to force the Redemption of Israel. A translation of a version from eighteenth century Amsterdam is presented. Influenced by the heretical ideas of Sabbatianism, this version carries two opposing...
eScholarship@McGill
1999
Lori. McNulty
A strange and enigmatic collection of myths, lyrical storytelling and fantastic folklore, Zora Neale Hurston's Tell My Horse: Voodoo and Life in Haiti and Jamaica details Hurston's Caribbean travels and journey as initiate into Haitian Voudoun. My thesis engages Hurston's contact with Voudoun as a phenomenon of encounter which begins for her with the complex crossing of rumours, secrets, lies,...
eScholarship@McGill
1996
Nandita. Nautiyal
This thesis examines the reasons why Walt Whitman has been a "puzzle" to literary critics for well over a century. It shows the correspondence between Walt Whitman's work and the mystical tradition of East as also interpreted by American Transcendentalists. Enquiry into "self" is the central theme of most of Whitman's work. Two aspects of this enquiry have been investigated in this thesis and...
eScholarship@McGill
1995
Josephine E. (Josephine Elise) Barrott
The author describes meditative practice in some of its historical and cultural contexts. She then reviews the literature and research on meditation pertinent to attention, the brain, stress, spirituality and personal development. She discusses the implications of meditation research for education. Finally, she presents suggestions and comments concerning the feasibility of implementing...
eScholarship@McGill
1995
Jacqueline Gail Bowering
This thesis examines traditional and contemporary perspectives on the nature of spirituality. Its aim is to provide a basis for a programme or course on spirituality that would be relevant and meaningful for students in multicultural settings. The main theme unifying the diverse traditions and perspectives examined in the thesis relates to the interconnectivity of all life within the Universe....
eScholarship@McGill
1994
Samia Costandi
Joseph Campbell's comparative studies in mythology revealed to him that culturally bred mythologies, despite their ethnic inflections, continually point to universal archetypes and a common human identity. Campbell's belief in the common human identity stems from his adherence to Carl Jung's mystical perspective on myth, where archetypes of the personal and collective unconscious help us...
eScholarship@McGill
1994
Patrick Jackson
Henri Michaux first discovered mescaline in 1956. This encounter proved a lasting influence on the work of the writer who, for at least ten years, struggled to circumscribe, then tried to explain the nature of the terrible shock he had received from the mind-altering chemical. The event was so important for the poet that in due time, it brought about a veritable conversion, a total and...
eScholarship@McGill
1979
Douglas Ross. Cann
This research investigated Carl Jung's theories as a means of understanding dreams and their relationship to personality structure. Jung's theories are shown to be consistent with recent theories of dream function and with research findings concerning dreaming sleep. Building on previous research, a general dimension for classifying dream content--degree of archetypality--is discussed, and...
eScholarship@McGill
1966
Andre. Villeneuve
Harmala alkaloids have attracted the interest of many investigators on account of their effect on the extrapyramidal system, their hallucinogenic properties, their inhibitory activity on monoamine oxidase and the hypothetical role of related compounds in mental illness. [...]