Psychoanalytic Studies (ref. M16)
This course offers a wide-ranging study of psychoanalytic theory and its applications to culture and cultural artefacts. Students will also gain direct experiential understanding of emotional development through observation of an infant or young child, with some opportunity to observe an organisation in the second year.
Who is this course for?
• Students are drawn from a wide variety of backgrounds, including practising clinicians, those interested in later training, and those interested in looking in more depth into their own field.
• While students are usually graduates or practising professionals, we also welcome students from nonstandard academic backgrounds.
Aims
• To provide a supportive intellectual and experiential culture within the student and staff group, in order to explore psychoanalysis both as a clinical discipline and a wide-ranging field of intellectual enquiry.
• To provide an opportunity to develop your own particular interests in the writing of a final dissertation on a subject of your choice.
Content/Teaching components
The programme has a broad and balanced curriculum and includes:
• Observation seminars taught by clinically experienced staff.
• Theory lecture/seminar series taught by staff from both academic and clinical backgrounds.
• An applications component taught by staff engaged in psychoanalytically-informed research and writing in a range of spheres such as art, literature, drama, social and group processes and popular culture.
Timetable
Part-time students, Tuesdays only.
Year 1
2.00pm - 3.15pm Infant observation Seminar
3.30pm - 4.45pm Applications 1 Seminar
5.00pm - 6.15pm Theory 1 Seminar
Year 2
2.00pm - 3.15pm Infant observation Seminar
3.30pm - 4.45pm Institutional Observation Seminar (optional module)
5.00pm - 6.15pm Theory 2 Seminar
6.15pm - 7.30pm Applications 2 Seminar
In the third term in Year 2 the dissertation proposal seminar runs 5.00pm-7.00pm
Year 3
Non-taught dissertation year.
Students have access to library facilities and are allocated a dissertation supervisor.
Full-time students, Tuesdays and Wednesdays
Year 1
Tuesdays
2.00pm - 3.15pm Infant observation Seminar
3.30pm Applications 1 Seminar
5.00pm Theory 1 Seminar
6.15pm Applications 2 Seminar
In the third term in the dissertation proposal seminar runs 5.00pm - 7.00pm
Wednesdays
10.00am - 11.15am Second Infant observation Seminar
11.45am - 1.00pm - Theory 2 (PC4 Lectures)
Year 2
Non-taught dissertation year.
Students have access to library facilities and are allocated a dissertation supervisor.
Assessment
• The MA is awarded by dissertation one term following completion of the other course modules.
• Those not wishing to do a dissertation can be awarded a Postgraduate Diploma on completion of two further short essays.
• Completion of the course leads to eligibility for the Tavistock Society of Psychotherapists, Allied Professional Division.
Student feedback
"I have not felt so mentally alive for years"
"It gave me a greater sense of the world around me"
"I would like to thank you and the team on M16 for your valuable support in my achievement of the MA. Upon reflection I can appreciate the hard work and felt proud at the graduation ceremony to have gone through such an 'experiential' and academic journey."
"I certainly treasured my time at the Tavistock, and on reflection, I find I have taken away so much more than I expected...the resonances from the different aspects of the course in my work and personal life have effected in me a greater sense of the world around me."
"I need to thank you and the other lecturers and staff for that rewarding experience."
Read how student Lianne Dickson came to the course and what she thinks about it.
Closing date
26th June (late applications may be considered).
Time commitment
Two years, part-time, Tuesday afternoons and evenings or one year, full-time, with taught component on Tuesdays and Wednesdays.
Entry requirement
Selection is based on a combination of academic and non-academic factors.
The normal academic requirement is an upper Second class honours degree.
The majority of applicants have First degrees in humanities and social science subjects, but overall the subject matter of this First degree is of less importance than evidence that an applicant has a firm interest in psychoanalytic ideas.
Applicants with degrees of less than upper Second class, and in some cases without degrees, are considered for exceptional entry if the course tutors can be satisfied as to their academic competence.
For all applicants, some capacity to use the learning opportunities offered by the course for personal development is an important factor, especially in relation to the observation component.
Course Readings and Access to Library Resources
When you begin your course you will be issued with an online study pack which you can access via our Virtual Learning Environment (VLE) called Moodle. Having a study pack means most of your key course readings for the whole year will be available to you simply by logging onto your Moodle course page. You can then print off the readings as you require them. Our students find this resource invaluable and it means you can have 24/7 access to your readings. Readings that are not included in your study pack can be obtained from the Library once you have enrolled with the Library at the end of September.
The Tavistock and Portman Library is nationally recognised as a leading UK therapeutic resource. For more information about our library follow the link www.tavi-port.org/library
Find out more information about the course
Read the article about the course featured in the BMJ, July '05
Download a list of past dissertation subjects
You can download and read examples of outstanding work done on the applications strand by recent M16 students
Kafka's The Metamorphosis
Aruna Wittman
Object Relations in a Love Poem
Ricardo Readi Garrido
The Interpreter as Maternal Container
Anna Blundy
When The Words Fail - The tragedy of the Modern Subjectivity through the Beckettian experience
Livia De Marco
Recent publications of past students
Barone, K, (2005) ‘On the Processes of working through Loss caused by Severe Illnesses in Childhood’ Psychoanalytic Psychotherapy, Vol 19:1
Keating, Sharon, (2003) ‘Loss, Illusional Systems of Defence and Possible Reparation in Two Works by Ian McEwan, Free Associations, Vol 10 Part 3 (No 55) 283-330
Paiva, N.D. (2005), ‘The Potential in Not Knowing’ (Winner of Second Prize, Hamish Canham Memorial Essay), International Journal of Infant Observation, Vol 8, No 3, 279-289
Schlussel, Angela (2005), ‘Making a Political Statement or Refusing to Grow Up: Reflections on the Situation of Academic Youth in Postwar British Literature, The American Journal of Psychoanalysis, Vol 65,No 4, 381-401
Swinburne, Mike, (2000) ‘Home is Where the Hate is’ Psychoanalytic Psychotherapy Vol 14 No 5, 223-238
Tower, Shawn, (2005) ‘Living with an Internal Other’, Psychotherapy and Politics International Vol 3 No 1 35-46
About the tutor
Dr. Judith Edwards is a consultant child and adolescent psychotherapist teaching and supervising on various courses at the Tavistock Clinic, where she is also course tutor for the MA in Psychoanalytic Studies.
She has a long-standing interest in linking the thoughts of psychoanalysis with creative endeavours in other fields, and recently gave a presentation at the Tavistock about the work of Antony Gormley, ‘Seeing and Being Seen’ 2009 (see photos-DVD available in the Tavistock Library)
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Apart from publishing papers in academic journals internationally, she has contributed to many books including most recently The Emotional Experience of Adoption (Hindle and Shulman, Routledge, 2008) and Acquainted with the Night: Psychoanalysis and the Poetic Imagination (Canham and Satyamurti, Karnac, 2003). She also conceived and edited Being Alive (Routledge, 2001) on the work of Anne Alvarez. She was joint editor of the Journal of Child Psychotherapy from 1996 to 2000, and has edited numerous books on psychoanalytic subjects, including Live Company (Alvarez 1992, Routledge), Arctic Spring: Potential for Growth in Adults with Psychosis and Autism (Tremelloni 2005, Karnac), Psychotherapy with Young People in Care: Lost and Found (Hunter 2001, Brunner-Routledge) and Intellectual Disability, Trauma and Psychotherapy (Edited Cottis, 2009, Routledge).
