BA Psychosocial and Psychoanalytic Studies

This module is designed to equip you with practical and analytical skills to understand, generate, analyse, interpret and present data, to draw valid conclusions from data and to critically assess examples of data use. Although these skills are applicable across disciplines, they will be taught in the context of social sciences using examples of political and social data from a range of sources including academic articles, newspaper reports, data archives, and Government statistics.

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This module is designed to support students in their academic subject disciplines and to strengthen their confidence in key skills areas such as: academic writing, research, academic integrity, collaborative and reflective practices. The students are supported through the use of subject-specific materials tailored to their chosen degrees with alignment of assessments between academic subject modules and the skills module.

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The module aims to establish a theoretical foundation for students pursuing degrees in Social Science through the introduction of some key theories and concepts associated with the fields of Sociology, Criminology and Psychoanalysis and Psychosocial studies. The relevance of these theories will be demonstrated through opportunities to consider their role in specific contemporary social issues. As such the Autumn Term focuses on criminological theory and its application to contemporary society whilst also encouraging the development of a Sociological Imagination through debating current social issues based on the work of key social theorists. In Spring term building upon the learning in Autumn Term, students will use the lens of psychoanalysis to explore how people interact within society. They will consider the way individuals affect one another and how institutions affect the people who work in them and vice versa. Throughout the module, expert guest speakers are periodically invited to contribute to lectures and seminars.

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This module is designed to prepare students wishing to join a degree course in the Faculty of Social Sciences and provides a sound academic background for how areas of language, society and politics are intertwined and how they influence the way we interact and shape the world around us. This module will give you the opportunity to investigate and respond to a complex question or challenge a problem through a small-scale collaborative team project. You will prepare a set of research questions and design and plan a project and showcase your findings and impact to a wider audience.

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How do unconscious dynamics work in individuals, groups and organisations? How can psychodynamic insight be applied to this? Explore how individuals affect one another, how institutions affect those who work there and vice versa. Understand key concepts in psychodynamic thinking and how to apply this to individuals, groups and workplaces.

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How are foundations of emotional development laid down in early life? What impact do early experiences have on future social and learning? Study personality development from a psychodynamic and attachment perspective. Examine key development stages to see how work with clients requires understanding of the initial roots of their difficulties.

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What do you know about depth psychology? How do psychoanalysis and analytical psychology provide new understanding of society, culture and politics? Build your knowledge about depth psychology - psychological thinking that introduces the concept of a deep unconscious. Understand Freud’s theories and their significance in social and cultural analysis.

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What do you know about depth psychology? How do psychoanalysis and analytical psychology provide new understanding of society, culture and politics? Build your knowledge about depth psychology - psychological thinking that introduces the concept of a deep unconscious. Understand Jung’s theories and their significance in social and cultural analysis.

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How can we use psychoanalytic theory to understand film, literature and television? What is culture and can it contribute to our understanding of psychoanalysis itself? Examine work by Freud and Jung, as well as more contemporary perspectives, through the lens popular culture.

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Want guidance in understanding your course? Know how your academic skills will transfer to the world of work? Develop your abilities to undertake independent research. Learn to read critically and to write clearly. Build the employability skills that will help you during your studies and after graduation.

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This introductory, two-term module foregrounds the ‘psychosocial’ in the BA in Psychosocial and Psychoanalytic Studies. Whilst deeply rooted in a range of theoretical ideas, the module will be selective in its treatment of the psychosocial, and illustrative of further areas of study to come at later points in the degree. The module’s main point of emphasis will be on ‘imagination’, in a dual sense. Both how we might imagine the ‘psychosocial’ as a discipline, with its specific forms of knowledge, theoretical frames and domains of application, but also in the sense that psychosocial studies might give weight to forms of imagination and representation in their capacity to link subjective and embodied existence with social life.

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Following your first year modules, this module will build on Freudian theory and introduce more advanced topics. You will explore the work of Melanie Klein and the British Object Relations School of psychoanalysis and learn how they have used and interpreted Freudian concepts.

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This module builds on analytical psychology and develops your insight into Jungian theory. You explore how Post Jungians have applied Jung’s theories and ideas to various topics such as gender, art, literature, religion and politics.

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In this module we examine some of the developments in psychoanalytic theory with a special focus on the figure of the child. We consider some of the debates surrounding the development of psychoanalysis of children through the work of Melanie Klein, D. W. Winnicott, Anna Freud, amongst others. We pay attention to the importance of play and practices of observation to understand how and why the figure of the child has been central to the development of psychoanalytic thought.

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Why are some people violent towards children? What are the underlying reasons for antisocial behaviour? Examine psychodynamic thinking to issues around aggression, violence and antisocial behaviour, as well wider socio-political topics. Explore psychodynamic applications in social and health care, culture and society.

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This module explores the work of French psychoanalyst Jacques Lacan. Lacan made links between psychoanalysis and linguistics, anthropology, literature and philosophy. What we consider to be our most intimate features, such as self-image, desire and phantasy, are in fact constituted by something outside and beyond ourselves – the ‘symbolic’ law of language and society. You will learn about Lacan’s theory of the ‘mirror phase’, our constitution through others, and the importance of being a speaking being.

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This module explored a wide range of children’s fiction, both written for children and about children. You read and analyse popular children’s literature from ‘Where the Wild Things are’ to ‘Matilda’. You will build your knowledge of how the perceptions of childhood have changed over the last century and the types of ideals being projected onto the world of children through literature.

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This second-year undergraduate module provides a grounding in theories of the psychosocial with a special focus on care, dependence, intimacy, and vulnerability. It enables you to critically engage with a range of theoretical approaches from psychoanalysis, sociology, critical theory, postcolonial and decolonial theory. Using ‘care, intimacy and vulnerability’ as its main pillars encourages you to reflect on practices of care, being card for and caring for others, as well as how these phenomena intersect with social and clinical processes. The module encourages you to engage with academic debates in a robust way and strengthen your reflexivity by enabling you to explore your own lived experiences of care. It is suitable for you wishing to work with people in various professional roles such as psychotherapy and mental health, social policy and research, human resources, education, and management. The module tallies with the University’s ongoing commitment to tackling the under-representation of ethnic minority groups and follows the principles of a decolonial curriculum by incorporating scholarship from BAME scholars. Finally, in building a solid, decolonial curriculum, the module also promotes greater visibility and inclusion for BAME students. You may find some of the readings included in this curriculum challenging. Whenever possible readings from non-scholarly sources are included to enable you to engage with ideas written in more accessible ways. The readings will be discussed in the lecture and seminars. You are encouraged to engage with the readings as much as you can manage. Questions considered include: 1. What is care? What is intimacy? Are care and intimacy central to cultivating strong interpersonal relationships? 2. What circumstances and structures – social, political, and personal – enable the emergence of caring relationships? 3. In what ways and to what extent does care play a crucial role in the organisation of socio-cultural and psychic life? 4. At a time of increasing alienation and loneliness, how can we reclaim meaningful, intimate relationships?

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Throughout the year students will be pursuing a research project based on a subject of their choice. There will be an introductory workshop to help with choosing the project, followed by a series of lectures and workshops and three 30-minute supervision meetings with a named member of staff to monitor progress and offer support. Students will draw on the theory from the three years of the course and apply these to a subject of their choice, exploring the conscious and unconscious dynamics involved.

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Members of staff from the Department of Psychosocial and Psychoanalytic Studies will use aspects of their research to open up debates in depth psychology and psychosocial studies. These may touch on issues of continuing importance for the contemporary discipline, or newly emerging questions. The content will vary from year to year so as to remain innovative and attuned to what is most recent in the field, but may include topics such as gender and intimacy, clinical cases, racism and neuro-psychoanalysis.

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Why do we treat mental health disorders? Is it purely to reduce distress, or is something more complicated going on? Can treatments for mental ill health be interpreted as enforcement or oppression? Alternatively, what happens when therapy is only available to those with socio-economic privilege? Through a critical interrogation of the idea of the ‘cure’, this module poses a question concerning the treatment of mental health disorders and models of recovery. The module will explore the spaces in which treatment has been situated, ranging from the asylum to the clinic, to the community. Students will be encouraged to think about the political, ethical, and economic implications of different models of ‘cure’ including psychoanalysis and psychiatry. Students will gain an understanding of the history of mental health discourse from the 19th century to the present day, as well as thinking about the current crisis in mental health provision in the UK.

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This module allows you to develop your reflective awareness and learn how to use psychodynamic understanding in relation to yourself as well as to the different aspects of the worlds you inhabit. You will develop an appreciation of unconscious and emotional communication in everyday life, and be able to engage critically and reflectively with contemporary topics. You will contribute actively to the design of the module, identifying with your peers areas of interest for psychoanalytic reflection. Reflective practice is represented by the following components: participating in Reflective Groups, maintaining a Reflective Journal and writing an end of year Reflective Report.

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What happens when people get together and work in groups? This module aims to help you understand the conscious and unconscious dynamics at work in organisations and the effect that this can have as a result. You will a deeper understanding of organisational dynamics and a greater capacity for psychodynamic observation, enabling you to apply psychodynamic insight to a wide range of settings.

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