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M.A. Psychoanalysis and Contemporary Society
Brunel University
| Application deadline: | as early as possible |
| Start date: | September 2013 |
| Credits: | 180 ECTS |
| Duration full-time: | 12 months |
| Languages: |
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| Location: |
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| Disciplines: | |
| Delivery mode: | On Campus |
| Educational variant: | Part-time, Full-time |
Description
* How are our behaviours influenced by unconscious motives?
* Which conflicts lie at the heart of contemporary individual and social problems?
* What explains our cultural and ideological obsession with power and violence?
This MA is designed to provide you with a training in classical and contemporary psychoanalytic theory. It maintains a constant attention to the relation between theory and practice and provides a clinical grounding through its emphasis on the clinical writings of Freud, Klein and Lacan.
The MA also offers the opportunity to develop a psychoanalytic approach to contemporary socio-cultural issues, in particular questions of political ideology, social conflict and violence. It engages with the relation between the psychoanalytic and social fields by exploring how to conceive of a psychoanalytic social theory. It questions how we can provide a specifically psychoanalytic account of social relations and it engages with issues raised by post-structuralist and feminist accounts of sexuality.
This degree is relevant to a wide range of graduates in the Social Sciences, Humanities and Fine Art, as well as those with professional interests in psychotherapy and analysis who wish to develop and apply their skills to the issues and areas on which this degree focuses.
Previous and current students have included art and film students, teachers and art historians as well as psychologists and analysts - and recently included a performance artist. Many overseas students have also undertaken this degree not only from most European countries but also from Latin America and farther afield.
Contents
The course engages with the issue of the relation between the psychoanalytic and social fields by exploring how to think a psychoanalytic social theory. Unlike many approaches to theorising the social in relation to the psychoanalytic field, it does not approach this question by adding "psychoanalysis" to an already existing theory of the social world, nor by reducing the social to the psychic. Rather, it questions how we can provide a specifically psychoanalytic account of social relations. In thinking the relation between psyche and sociality, it engages with the issues raised by the psychoanalytic and feminist accounts of sexuality. These issues are taken and further explored in an examination of psychoanalysis as social theory, particularly as developed by Slavoj Zizek. This work enables us to consider social relations as real, imaginary and symbolic relations between subjects. The social in the psychoanalytic field is rethought as constituted in phantasmatic and symbolic relations between subjects. Rethinking the social relation in this way raises questions about the relation between social change and the clinic, bringing the question of sociality within the field of clinical practice. In this way, the social relation is re-inscribed in the psychoanalytic relation.
The relation between social change and the clinic is also explored through the aesthetic object. If we take seriously the proposition that the world is psychoanalytic, then we can take the aesthetic object and treat it psychoanalytically. Unlike much work in this area, this course does not begin with the particular disciplinary formulation of the art object as a function of art history, art criticism or a clinical reading. Instead, it questions how we can provide a psychoanalytic account of the aesthetic object and what a psychoanalytic practice in the field of art might be. We can only do this by starting with the knowledge acquired in psychoanalytic clinical practice. Nonetheless the psychoanalytic field of art has its own autonomy. This course and the work of the students on it will contribute to the development of that autonomous field. The knowledge derived from the encounter with the cultural object has implications for the clinic. After all, when Freud could not solve the riddle of sexual difference he told us to go to the poets for enlightenment. Cultural practices can signal social change. A psychoanalytic understanding of these practices can raise questions for clinical practice.
Typical modules (subject to change) may include:
Foundations of Psychoanalytic Theory
Clinical Interventions in Psychoanalysis
Symptom and Society
Research Methods in Psychoanalysis
Requirements
Normally a good Honours degree from a UK institution; an equivalent overseas qualification; or an equivalent professional qualification or professional interest in eg psychotherapy; psychoanalysis; social work; education; and nursing.
International students are welcomed. We require IELTS 6.5 (min 6.0 in all sections) or equivalent.
English Language Requirements
| IELTS band: | 6.5 |
| CAE score: | 60(Grade A) |
Funding
The Brunel International Scholarship
The Brunel International Scholarship is an annual award scheme designed to promote talent and encourage excellence in scholars coming to Brunel from around the globe.
For more details please visit:
IELTS
You are normally required to take an English Proficiency Test.
Most European Universities recognise the IELTS test.
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