Module Directory

This module aims to provide students with the opportunity to develop their reflective awareness and the capacity to use psychodynamic understanding in relation to themselves and the groups they are in.

They will learn to apply their growing grasp of psychodynamic theory to their own experience and to develop their appreciation of the role of unconscious and emotional communication in ordinary life. This will enable them to become more subtle in their understanding of the meaning of what they themselves bring to the learning experience. It will enable them to reflect on their own process in groups and to become more self-aware.

The aims of this module are:

• To encourage students to consider their own career development in a critical and constructive manner


• To enable students to gain a deeper understanding of the graduate labour market and how to skillfully navigate a path(s) through it.


• To critically reflect upon how practical knowledge and experience inform career/self-development.


• To understand the professional fields in which psychoanalytic knowledge can be applied.


• To gain awareness of the real life of a professional in the field.


• To increase awareness of the role of emotional communication and the unconscious in one’s own and other’s experiences.


• To develop employability skills through greater self-awareness.


• To establish a reflective space for acknowledging and processing the emotional and psychological implications of the material studied in this course.


• To develop the capacity for self-reflection and an awareness of the influence of one’s own processes and personal experiences.

1. Explore and reflect on how a degree in psychoanalytic studies can enhance employability


2. Explore sections of the graduate labour market that are relevant to a career of interest


3. Reflect on job market knowledge and self-awareness to inform career choice


4. Demonstrate a comprehensive anderstanding of the processes involved in recruitment and selection


5. Demonstrate the ability to listen carefully to challenge and better inform ideas and plans


6. Demonstrate the skills and knowledge to complete a reflective career action plan


7. Demonstrate a greater ability to observe detail and to perceive subtle indications of emotional and unconscious dynamics in themselves and others


8. Demonstrate experiential familiarity with the role of conscious and unconscious mechanisms in relationships and the learning task


9. Demonstrate the capacity to critically reflect on one’s own process in groups and in the learning process


10. Demonstrate the ability to be increasingly reflexive and recognise the relationship between psychoanalytic theory and lived experience

Reflective practice is represented by the following components: attending Reflective Groups, maintaining a Reflective Journal and, as a specific end of year assignment, writing a Reflective Report. These activities encourage and support the conscious use of self (self-awareness) in social and professional relationships, the experience of 'learning from action' and a recognition of oneself as a 'participant observer' in different contexts.

Students will attend periodic reflective groups, providing and experiential component to their academic studies, in which they will be asked to reflect on and discuss the experience of being in the group and on the course. They will keep a reflective log through the year and use this as the basis for a reflective report at the end of the course.

Alongside their final year dissertation, these groups support students in integrating all the varied aspects of their studies and experiences, to consider how they have changed and developed and where this now leaves them as they consider the transition from university into the next phase of their lives and employment.