ABSTRACT
This chapter explores the role and contribution of trauma theory and praxis to the understanding of transformative learning (TL). It explains psychoanalytic and psychological theory to address the pedagogical implications of TL. Both pre-reflective engagement and identification contribute to the elaboration of the psychic structure. TL theorists also make a case for structural change in the psyche. TL implies structural change, a morphing of one’s identity, a reconfiguration of one’s psychological shape. Kegan Paul claims that anxiety and depression are the affective concomitants of transformation. The concept of liminality has much to offer—understandings that suggest the possible connections between individual and collective transformation. During a liminal experience, the hold of social convention is revealed as arbitrary and, therefore, potentially revisable. Moreover, by mapping the processes involved, TL provides the necessary, perhaps temporary, reference points for navigating the fluid zone.
