Women's transgression or transcendence in relationship:

Birge, B. (1999). Women's transgression or transcendence in relationship: The myth of Io (Doctoral dissertation, Pacifica Graduate Institute, 1999). UMI no. 9962479

Mythology and history suggest that, for all time, people have engaged in transgressive relationships, crossing boundaries established by societal taboos and religious codes. This dissertation focuses on women's transgressions in relationships such as those commonly referred to as adultery, extramarital intercourse, or illicit affairs, and it assumes that such relationships can be psychologically important since women risk them despite great dangers.

Whereas any relationship that violates boundaries could be considered transgressive, this investigation is limited to consensual, heterosexual unions. It asks: What are some of the psychological experiences a woman undergoes in a transgressive relationship, and what may she gain psychologically from having transgressed? To explore these questions, the study uses a hermeneutic approach and imaginatively amplifies the Greek myth of the priestess Io, who becomes a lover of the married god Zeus.

Close examination of Io's story reveals varied aspects of some experiences a woman might have as she engages in or considers a transgressive relationship. Examples of her feelings and experiences are the need to separate from collective values, manic avoidance of her feelings, denial of responsibility, the pain of encountering shadow aspects of herself, gaining access to potency, increasing her capacity for object relations, and reckoning with loss and grief. The myth also demonstrates how transgressing may lead a woman to consider the nature of fate. In addition, transgressing may challenge her spiritual and theological beliefs and may potentially offer an experience of transcendence.

The study recognizes that the concepts of transgression and transcendence are normally seen as opposed and suggests that this opposition is personified in the archetypal figures of Eve and Mary. It posits that any attempt to examine women's transgressive relationships must consider that Western society views women in terms of these split female archetypes. Tracing the Judeo-Christian perspective regarding Eve and Mary throughout history, the study illustrates how misogynistic views prohibit us from considering women's transgressions in their complexity. Finally, it suggests that, except in cases of actual abuse, well-meaning attitudes which cast women as innocents or as victims perpetuate age-old misogyny and prevent women from reaching the truth of their experience.