Module Directory

The module is designed to explore the relationship between psychosocial studies and psychoanalysis. A key aim of this module is to introduce a range of significant psychoanalytic ideas, not only on their own as abstract theory, but also through their use in various fields, clinical and nonclinical (including cultural studies and social research methods). Such an approach will help you understand the utility and limitations of psychoanalytic ideas more deeply and critically, so that you can use them in conjunction with knowledge from other sources, test their limits of application and deploy them more accurately.

The aims of this module are: 

• To explore different conceptions of the psychosocial, and understand the relationship between psychosocial studies and psychoanalysis


• To explore different conceptions of the psychosocial, and understand the relationship between psychosocial studies and psychoanalysis


• To consolidate the understanding of key psychoanalytic ideas through their use in a range of settings


• To explore a range of psychosocial applications of psychoanalysis and to discuss the nature of psychosocial approaches


• To foster a critical approach to the theory of psychoanalysis and more particularly, to the nature and validity of evidence and interpretation, by exploring it through non-clinical, as well as clinical sources


• To investigate what happens when psychoanalytic ideas are used in conjunction with other disciplinary frameworks (history, politics, gender studies, cultural analysis, etc)


• To understand and evaluate the importance of unconscious forces operating both in clinical and non-clinical situations.

By the end of this module. students will be expected to be able to:

1. Demonstrate familiarity with relevant psychoanalytic concepts and psychosocial approaches, bringing a questioning and critical dimension to your understanding through applying them and testing them outside psychoanalysis itself, especially with respect to culture and society


2. Demonstrate familiarity with relevant psychoanalytic concepts and psychosocial approaches, bringing a questioning and critical dimension to your understanding through applying them and testing them outside psychoanalysis itself, especially with respect to culture and society


3. Deploy various critical and academic skills (e.g., how to evaluate historical sources, philosophical arguments, the nature and adequacy of theories, or cultural artefacts) in a psychoanalytically informed investigation of a topic, including the analysis of texts


4. Show an understanding of psychodynamic, principally unconscious, forces at work in nonclinical situations, especially aspects of culture and society, and to assess their importance


5. Show a critical understanding of methodological issues in psychoanalytic and psychosocial studies: what is special about psychoanalytic and/or psychosocial methodology, what are its strengths and weaknesses; how can it be combined with other more socially oriented forms of investigation?

This module will be delivered via: 

• Seminars that will include an overview of the topic by the seminar leader, followed by discussion
• Students may be asked to introduce a topic with a prepared, short presentation. Some classes may include concentrated, critical reading of texts in small groups, followed by discussion.