Dissertations - 2021

WOMEN, FLAMENCO DANCE AND ANALYTICAL PSYCHOLOGY

Cristiane Adamo

Advisor: Prof. Dr. Durval Luiz de Faria
Keywords: Suicide. Hopelessness. Positive and negative affects. Analytical Psychology

Abstract: The main objective of this work was to investigate the psychological aspects involved in the experience of flamenco dancing in women between 40 and 60 years old. A qualitative research was carried out, through semi-structured interviews, with eight women who have been practicing flamenco dancing for at least one year, since before the beginning of the covid-19 pandemic. The interviews were conducted online, through a digital platform. The narratives were systematized and divided into thematic groups and themes, according to the method of content analysis proposed by Bardin (2016) and adapted by Faria (2003). The analysis of the results was based on Analytical Psychology. The results show that family relationships, ancestry and emotional bonds with relatives and friends strongly influenced the participants' interest and motivation for flamenco dancing. Women were also motivated by the emotions aroused in contact with flamenco. The dance seems to stimulate different feelings, help and deepen inner contact and connect women with aspects of the feminine, rescuing and integrating different ways of being a woman and exploring the inner feminine. Furthermore, the expression of emotional states through movement is very characteristic of flamenco dancing. The interaction of body and emotions that distinguish each palo (rhythm) favors the dynamic relationship between consciousness and the unconscious, which seems to contribute to the process of psychic self-regulation and to the contact with the creative source that contains the potentials that can be developed and which nourishes and organizes the psyche. Another relevant aspect suggested by the results is the possibility of deepening the individuation process that flamenco dancing offers to women between 40 and 60 years of age. Thus, the study indicates that flamenco dancing can be a resource for self-knowledge that stimulates psychological development and the movement of the psyche towards the totality of the being, through the opportunity to integrate different aspects that have been set aside, repressed or relegated to the shadows throughout personal development.