APJCRI Asia-pacific Journal of Convergent
Research Interchange

Literary Therapy as Adult Education - Based on the Self-growing and -realizing Lives of Four Therapists

February 28, 2021  |  Vol.7, No.2  |  PP. 11-21  | PDF

AUTHORS:

Yonsuk Chae, Dept. German Teachers College, Kyungpook National Univ., Daehakro 80, Buk-gu, Daegu, Korea

Seonah Heo, Dept. German Teachers College, Kyungpook National Univ., Daehakro 80, Buk-gu, Daegu, Korea

Jihyun Sim, Pukyong National Univ., Busan, Korea

Youngok Kim, Dept. German Teachers College, Kyungpook National Univ., Daehakro 80, Buk-gu, Daegu, Korea

KEYWORDS:

Literary Therapy, Adult Education, Self-growing, Self-realization

Abstract

This study is aimed to describe and suggest how four research participants came to select the literary therapist course in adult education as a transformative curriculum to grow and develop owing to it, by using a self-narrative method. Through the cases of literary therapists, this research is intended to examine how literary therapy, like adult education, came to develop individual competence and secure professionalism in lifelong education and adult education. This study is describing in order of 1) Life before experiencing literary therapy 2) Process of experiencing literary therapy 3) After acquiring literary therapy. To summarise, seeing through four researchers’ cases, the life-transition characteristic in which these people come to select adult learning, respectively, can be known to proceed with developing diverse areas including self-development, child-rearing, self-healing, and academic expansion. Accordingly, in the research participants’ cases, can be considered to be representative for adult-education cases, achieved self-growth and self-realization literary therapists at the turn of their lives. As seen in the cases of four literary therapists even in this study, there is diversity both in the opportunity that each person came to face literary therapy, and in the social sphere of coming to be active with the changed image. A learner through literary therapy strives to discover “reflected ego (reflektierendes Ich),” which finds true self and reflects on the events of occuring in own life’s journey. The adult learning, which was chosen for the primary objective, comes to elicit even the secondary and tertiary outcomes dubbed personal growth and identity alteration. Resultingly, seeing through four researchers’ cases, the life-transition characteristic in which these people come to select adult learning, respectively, can be known to proceed with developing diversely into self-development, child rearing, self-healing, and academic expansion. The research participants’ cases, which were examined in this study, can be considered to be the representative adult-education cases, which achieved self-growth and self-realization as a literary therapist at the turn of their lives.