MA in Psychoanalysis

The course is based on a structured study of the fundamental texts of Freudian and Lacanian psychoanalysis. It provides the perfect foundation for doctoral research in clinical psychoanalysis or psychoanalysis applied to other fields such as literature and philosophy, film and media.

The Psychoanalysis MA is the only MA in the UK taught with the support of psychoanalysts in connection with the Department of Psychoanalysis at Paris-8 University. This Department was founded by Jacques Lacan himself.

What will you study?

Freud and Lacan’s teachings highlight the inseparable relationship between culture and clinical practice. The MA offers the opportunity to study the fundamental texts of Freudian and Lacanian psychoanalysis, current research in the Freudian field and the application of analytical concepts in practice. The programme begins with a foundation module on Freud’s metapsychology. Other topics studied include Freud’s theory of culture and the social bond, Jacques Lacan’s return to Freud, and Jacques-Alain Miller’s recent clinical elaborations such as ordinary psychosis. You will study four taught modules and prepare a dissertation on a topic of your choice.

London is a historical centre for psychoanalysis and annual trips to the Freud Museum and other areas of historical and current significance will be undertaken.

CORE MODULES:

Psychoanalytic Theory

The theory module is designed 1) to specify the epistemological conditions and ethical principles of psychoanalysis as distinct from other forms of psychotherapeutic practices; 2) to provide an introduction to the key concepts of psychoanalytic practice (drive, unconscious, transference and repetition) introduced by Freud in his metapsychological writings and developed by Lacan over the course of his teaching; 3) to apply these concepts to study specific questions in terms both of theoretical implications and clinical indications (themes include fetishism, autism, sexuation, ordinary psychosis, addictions, depression…) using the works of Freud and Lacan but also contemporary work in the Lacanian orientation as developed in the Clinical Sections of the World Association of Psychoanalysis.

Clinical Case Studies

The transmission of the psychoanalytic theory of clinical practice uses the method of the case study. This module is designed 1) to provide an epistemological justification for the method of the case study over the statistical series of evidence-based models; 2) to give an introduction to psychoanalytic technique (themes include differential diagnosis, interpretation, handling of transference, session length…); 3) to study Freud’s foundational case-studies and the clinical structures they formalized (obsessional neurosis, hysteria, psychosis, phobia…); 4) to discuss and compare cases from different orientations about a given ‘symptom’ to study the relationship between theory and case construction; 5) to study contemporary case-studies produced in the pass procedure to formalize the trajectory and ends of an analytic experience.

Dissertation in Psychoanalysis

This module provides students with an opportunity for intensive and detailed research-based study of their chosen topic under the guidance of an appropriate MA dissertation supervisor from LGS and/or the London Society of the New Lacanian School.

OPTIONAL MODULES

Psychoanalysis applied to Literature, Film and Media

Alongside theory and clinical practice, psychoanalysis has also been applied, since Freud, to the study and interpretation of myth, the social bond and cultural forms such as art and literature. This module looks at how psychoanalysis has developed in conjunction with interpretations of literature in Freud and Lacan (Oedipus, Hamlet, Poe etc) to the importance of psychoanalysis to the development of film theory and analysis. The module also speculates on the role of new media in the emergence of new symptoms and discontents contemporary with the rise of digital culture.

Plus (indicative): 

Gender and Sexuality (EL 7002)

Critical and Cultural Theory  (EL 7004)

Recent French Philosophy (PH 7804)

Topics in Modern European Philosophy 

 

Learn a Language

You will have the opportunity to study a foreign language, free of charge, during your time at the University as part of the Kingston Language Scheme. Options currently include: Arabic, French, German, Italian, Japanese, Mandarin and Spanish.

For more information, please visit the Kingston University website.

Email queries to at The London Graduate School