PA928-7-SP-CO:
Psychoanalytic Epistemology

PLEASE NOTE: This module is inactive. Visit the Module Directory to view modules and variants offered during the current academic year.
The details
2023/24
Psychosocial and Psychoanalytic Studies
Colchester Campus
Spring
Postgraduate: Level 7
Inactive
Monday 15 January 2024
Friday 22 March 2024
15
24 August 2023

 

Requisites for this module
(none)
(none)
(none)
(none)

 

(none)

Key module for

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Module description

This module is aimed to teach a critical approach to the ways in which psychoanalytic thinking generates knowledge. Many of the discoveries of psychoanalysis (the unconscious, transference, childhood sexuality) have become so accepted in Western culture that they are part of the general attitude to life. What however makes us believe they are true? How did Freud and others convince everyone else? What arguments are there against the truth of psychoanalytic ideas?

In particular this one-term module will concentrate on the methods of generating and communicating new knowledge from the clinical setting. Almost all psychoanalytic ideas have come from observation and practice in the standard psychoanalytic treatment setting, which produces clinical material as a process which combines a cognitive content with a relational (transference and countertransference) context between analyst and analysand.

Critical debate on methods, clinical research, and the validity of clinical material in psychoanalysis is relatively lacking at present, and this module provides an overview of how psychoanalytic ideas might be thought about in these various respects.

The field of psychoanalytic ideas is now vast, and segmented into a number of different theoretical 'schools'. Clinical research has a particular relevance in comparing concepts and bodies of theory between these schools. This Methodology module will concentrate on epistemological issues of validity of and conviction for psychoanalytic ideas generated in the clinical setting, leaving much of the relatedness of psychoanalysis to other disciplines to other modules (notably, Groups and Organizations and Thinking Psychoanalytically). Nonetheless, the methodological approaches discussed in this module, such as grounded theory and hermeneutics, are immediately relevant to research in other fields, notably history and the social sciences. You will, therefore, see that this module has an application in grounding the use of psychoanalytic ideas in other disciplines, and for the experimentation with ideas from other disciplines.

Module aims

The module sets out to provide an opportunity for students:
To debate the nature of psychoanalytic evidence
To review claims of psychoanalytic writers for the validity of their observations and conclusions
To examine the relations between psychoanalysis and the ideas and theories of other fields of study.

Module learning outcomes

At the end of the module successful students will be able to:
Demonstrate an understanding of the methods of generating knowledge from clinical practice
Engage in critical analysis of psychoanalytic discoveries, on the basis of debates in the psychoanalytic literature

Module information

No additional information available.

Learning and teaching methods

No information available.

Bibliography

The above list is indicative of the essential reading for the course.
The library makes provision for all reading list items, with digital provision where possible, and these resources are shared between students.
Further reading can be obtained from this module's reading list.

Assessment items, weightings and deadlines

Coursework / exam Description Deadline Coursework weighting

Exam format definitions

  • Remote, open book: Your exam will take place remotely via an online learning platform. You may refer to any physical or electronic materials during the exam.
  • In-person, open book: Your exam will take place on campus under invigilation. You may refer to any physical materials such as paper study notes or a textbook during the exam. Electronic devices may not be used in the exam.
  • In-person, open book (restricted): The exam will take place on campus under invigilation. You may refer only to specific physical materials such as a named textbook during the exam. Permitted materials will be specified by your department. Electronic devices may not be used in the exam.
  • In-person, closed book: The exam will take place on campus under invigilation. You may not refer to any physical materials or electronic devices during the exam. There may be times when a paper dictionary, for example, may be permitted in an otherwise closed book exam. Any exceptions will be specified by your department.

Your department will provide further guidance before your exams.

Overall assessment

Coursework Exam
100% 0%

Reassessment

Coursework Exam
100% 0%
Module supervisor and teaching staff
Dr Leonardo Niro, email: l.niro@essex.ac.uk.
Student Administrator 5A.202; Tel: 01206 873745 Email: ppspgt@essex.ac.uk

 

Availability
Yes
No
Yes

External examiner

Dr Noreen Giffney
Ulster University, Jordanstown Campus, Northern Ireland
Lecturer in Counselling
Resources
Available via Moodle
Of 18 hours, 18 (100%) hours available to students:
0 hours not recorded due to service coverage or fault;
0 hours not recorded due to opt-out by lecturer(s).

 

Further information
Psychosocial and Psychoanalytic Studies

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