Psychoanalysis and Contemporary Society MA

About the Course

• 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.

Aims

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.

Enquiries

Course enquiries
Email sss-pgenquiries@brunel.ac.uk
Tel +44 (0)1895 265951

For applications already submitted
Contact Admissions online
Tel +44 (0)1895 265265

Course director: Professor Dany Nobus

View the Social Sciences website

Related Courses

• Cross-Cultural Psychology MSc
• Functional Neuroimaging MSc
• Evolutionary Psychology MSc
• Psychology, Health and Behaviour MSc

Special Features

We have an international research reputation, with particular expertise in areas such as neuropsychology, psychoanalysis, developmental psychology and social psychology.

The Centre for Cognition and Neuroimaging jointly owns a 3-Tesla fMRI scanner dedicated to research, as part of the ‘CU BIC ’ collaboration with Royal Holloway, Roehampton and Surrey Universities.

Academics have published high-impact journal articles and books on a broad range of subjects and have received research funding from a variety of bodies, including the EU, the Commission for Racial Equality, the Nuffield Foundation, the Economic and Social Research Council, the Home Office, the Department of Health, The Wellcome Trust, The Leverhulme Trust and the Arts and Humanities Research Council.

Professor Dany Nobus (degree convenor) specialises in the study of development and disorders of sexuality; history of psychology, psychiatry and psychoanalysis; psychology of transgression and eccentricity. Current research projects involve an exploration of the impact of individual choice on the development of sexual identity, and an investigation into the effect of changing representation of fatherhood in western society on parenting practices and socialisation strategies.

Dr Antonios Vadolas' research explores the relationship between fascism, power and the category of perversion. His current research interests include the death drive in politics and art; the link between language and the body; psychopathology and psychoanalysis.

Course Content

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 (all core)

Foundations of Psychoanalytic Theory
Main topics of study: the origin and development of psychoanalysis; sexuality and the unconscious; neurosis, perversion, psychosis; the foundations of psychoanalytic technique; Freud's case-studies; the second topography; the work of Melanie Klein, Donald W Winnicott, Jacques Lacan; psychoanalytic theories of psychosis; psychoanalytic views on addiction; the so-called ‘new symptoms' in contemporary society.

Clinical Interventions in Psychoanalysis
Main topics of study: the case-study of the Rat Man; the case-study of the Wolf Man; paradigmatic cases in the psychoanalytic literature; differential diagnosis; the direction of the psychoanalytic treatment; interpretation, transference and countertransference; the position of the analyst; psychoanalysis and suggestion; professional case presentations and their clinical difficulties; a case of auto-erotic asphyxia; psychoanalytic theory development and clinical practice.

Symptom and Society
Main topics of study: Freud's cardinal works on culture and society; the Lacanian concept of the object; recent psychoanalytic developments on the issues of groups, social identity and community life; the relationship between contemporary symptoms and the so-called ‘decline of the paternal function' within Western society; sadism; murder; the representation of violence and the question of ethics; psychoanalytic interpretations of representations of violence (Pasolini's ‘Saló; Lars von Trier's ‘Dogville'; Michael Powell's ‘Peeping Tom').

Research Methods in Psychoanalysis
Main topics of study: psychoanalytic epistemologies; knowledge and truth in psychoanalysis; induction, deduction and abduction; the logic of psychoanalytic discovery; the validation of psychoanalytic theory and practice; how to set up a psychoanalytic research project; logical reasoning and the anticipation of certainty; the object and the subject in psychoanalysis; how to access psychoanalytic resources; how to develop a psychoanalytic argument; the interface between theory and practice in psychoanalysis.

Dissertation 
Main topics of study: The specific topics and/or research problems discussed in the dissertation are a function of the learner’s particular research interests in the domain of psychoanalysis, and the data generated by the learner’s own research.

Main aims of the module:

To bring perspectives derived from the taught modules to bear upon an issue of research interest to the learner within the domain of psychoanalysis and contemporary society.

The dissertation should reflect a specifically psychoanalytical approach to research and analysis. Original research data may be derived from empirical study in a field chosen by the learner, or may be collected from published resources.

The object of the dissertation is twofold: (i) to explore a theoretical and/or clinical issue employing psychoanalytic concepts, and (ii) to show how this psychoanalytic exploration contributes to an enhanced understanding of this issue, relative to the existing literature in the area of study.

Recent examples of dissertations by students taking this course include:

• Psychoanalysis and racial identity: exploring the impasse;
• The perverse prostitute, the neurotic woman, the stereotyped female;
• Psychosis and the image;
• On nightmares.

Assessment

Individual modules are assessed. There is also a final 15,000 word dissertation. 

Careers

After undertaking this degree you will be equipped to understand and further develop your interests in psychoanalytic practice and the psychoanalytic study of contemporary social issues. Some students have gone on to teach and lecture in this area; others have become (Lacanian) analysts, or taken other intensive analytic training courses; several students have subsequently undertaken PhD degrees not only directly in psychoanalytic studies but also in Art History; others have used their degrees in different kinds of ways through careers in business and the commercial sector, or in youth work and management. The diversity of career paths taken by graduates from the degree emphasises its enriching role in a wide variety of ways in developing both personal and professional opportunities.

Fees for 2013/14 entry

UK/EU students: £5,800 full-time; £2,900 part-time

International students: £13,500 full-time; £6,750 part-time

Read about funding opportunities available to postgraduate students

Fees quoted are per annum and are subject to an annual increase.

Entry 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.

English Language Requirements

• IELTS: 6.5 (min 6 in all areas)
• TOEFL Paper test: 580 (TWE 4.5)
• TOEFL Internet test: 92 (R20, L20, S20, W20)
• Pearson: 59 (51 in all subscores)
• BrunELT 65% (min 60% in all areas)

Brunel also offers our own BrunELT English Test and accept a range of other language courses. We also have a range of Pre-sessional English language courses, for students who do not meet these requirements, or who wish to improve their English.