Mileva, N. (2017). The soul of her solitude: Transpersonal dimensions of female aloneness [Unpublished Master’s thesis]. Alef Trust & Middlesex University.

The study represents an Organic Inquiry into the emotional, psychological, philosophical and spiritual aspects of the lived experience of female solitude. Fifteen women, including the author of the research, participated by sharing their first-person accounts and related experiential perspectives on living alone, being solitary or choosing to spend extended periods of time by themselves. One additional portrayal of solitude experience was introduced via a third person account. In the course of this study, different theories derived from feminist literature, depth and archetypal psychology, transpersonal theory, phenomenology and Jungian analysis were applied to the data. Through the data analysis, the stories of these women, uncovering the inner workings of solitude, revealed how, despite of some intense emotional upheavals, spending time alone developed a mindset of positive autonomy and cultivated dynamic, fertile inner life, expressed and experienced through a reconnection with the inner self; recovering, transforming and/ or solidifying one’s sense of essential selfhood; self-regulation, self-therapy and self- healing; strengthening one’s self-esteem ( and its components: self-acceptance, self-reliance, self-efficacy, self-sufficiency ); improving one’s relational capacities and understanding of others; unveiling and fuelling one’s creativity; expanding one’s spiritual awareness and sense of connection with a larger whole and/or a higher power.