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Full time | Birkbeck, University of London | 1 year | OCT-24

Study mode

Full time

Duration

1 year

Start date

OCT-24

Key information
DATA SOURCE : IDP Connect

Qualification type

MA - Master of Arts

Subject areas

Psychoanalysis Psychopathology

Course type

Taught

Course Summary

COURSE OVERVIEW

The MA Psychoanalytic Studies allows you to study the origins of psychoanalysis, its history over its first 120 years of life, its main ideas and their applications, both within and outside the therapeutic context, and in particular how it has been taken up and contested in different social and cultural situations.

Taught by leading academics, the course explores how psychoanalytic thought has been used to illuminate pressing social and political concerns, and examines the controversies that have always surrounded it. It focuses on the interface between psychoanalysis as an evolving clinical practice, as a form of social knowledge, and as a mode of critique. The course examines key psychoanalytic concepts in detail and places those concepts in context. It will enable you to closely study the numerous modern developments within psychoanalysis, from Freud through to contemporary psychoanalytic theory and practice. You will also explore the methodological, epistemological and ethical issues that have resulted from diverse elaboration and extension of psychoanalytic ideas, not only in a clinical setting, but also in social and cultural inquiries, and in the interpretation of the historical past.

The course asks how far modern thought on war and other forms of violent conflict, fascism, terrorism, racism and xenophobia has had an influence on the way we think about the unconscious mind, and vice versa. It also investigates how psychoanalytic accounts of inter-personal and intra-psychic relationships have shaped - or been shaped by - wider cultural attitudes to love, intimacy and destructiveness, and about the place of these accounts in discussions of gender and sexuality, racism and postcolonialism.

This course links with the British Psychoanalytical Society through events, teaching staff and also through the Society's Foundation Course in Psychoanalysis, which you may apply to take as an option module on the MA. For those with strong clinical interests and the necessary experience, this arrangement provides an exceptional opportunity to be taught psychoanalytic theory by some of the most senior and eminent psychoanalysts in the country.

CAREERS AND EMPLOYABILITY

Graduates can pursue career paths in psychoanalysis, psychotherapy, counselling, research, education, journalism and politics. Possible professions include:

psychoanalyst

psychotherapist

counsellor

clinical psychologist.

Modules

This module presents fundamental psychoanalytic concepts drawn from the Freudian, British School and Lacanian traditions. It offers a strong grounding in key psychoanalytic ideas and a critical introduction to the ways in which these ideas originated and have developed. It forms the basis for the modules on the MA Psychoanalytic Studies that deal with the ?application? of psychoanalysis to social, historical and cultural issues.

Tuition fees

UK fees
Course fees for UK students

For this course (per year)

£10,800

International fees
Course fees for EU and international students

For this course (per year)

£19,030

Entry requirements

At least a second-class honours degree (2:2), or equivalent, in any discipline relevant to the course, including most humanities and social science disciplines, such as psychology, history, English, languages, sociology, politics, philosophy and cultural studies.

University information

Birkbeck, University of London is a university which continues to change lives. In 2023 the institution marks its 200th anniversary. Established in 1823, Birkbeck is a world-class research and teaching institution, well known for being London’s premier evening university. Most classes take place in the evening, and this makes Birkbeck stand out from the crowd. Students have the freedom to use their daytimes however they like – a benefit that has...more