Date of Award

5-21-2011

Document Type

Dissertation

Degree Name

PHD - Doctor of Philosophy

Department

Expressive Therapies

First Advisor

Michele Forinash

Second Advisor

Robyn Cruz

Third Advisor

Dunia Massalha

Abstract

This study used qualitative action research methods describing a meeting between Israeli Jewish and Palestinian women using expressive therapies techniques. It aimed at describing how Jewish Israeli and Palestinian Israeli women used expressive therapies to create a dialogue about peace. Participants took part in two workshops of expressive therapy in Israel, in November 2006 and February 2007. Participants were four Palestinian women and eight Jewish women. The study describes the narratives created in the big group as three narratives  the Palestinian, the Jewish Zionist and the Jewish Radical  and the encounter through the arts as a narrative on its own. The narratives generated illustrate how the various subgroups created separate and shared stories and used arts to create a „different kind‟ of communication. The communication established using arts, was characterized by deep attention, authentic speech, empathy, and tolerance. Also, it was characterized by multidimensionality, complexity, and a wealth of emotions and emotional expressions. The current study highlights the need to broaden the experience and to expand the study of using expressive therapy as an alternative means of educating for peace, and in encounters between groups in political conflict. In the context of the Israeli Palestinian conflict, the violent political reality in Israel, and the focus on women only, this research is original in the area of peace education.

Creative Commons License

Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 4.0 License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 4.0 License.

Language

English

Number of Pages

128

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