Undergraduate Course: In Search of Modern Selves: Psychiatry and Psychotherapies in India and Japan, 1880 - the Present (HIST10372)
Course Outline
| School | School of History, Classics and Archaeology |
College | College of Humanities and Social Science |
| Credit level (Normal year taken) | SCQF Level 10 (Year 4 Undergraduate) |
Availability | Not available to visiting students |
| SCQF Credits | 40 |
ECTS Credits | 20 |
| Summary | This course introduces students to a number of pressing contemporary
problems concerning the modern self and mental health, currently being
debated within the 'psy disciplines' - psychiatry, psychotherapy, and
psychology - and by historians/anthropologists of transcultural mental health. We tackle these problems by framing them historically, with a comparative focus on modern India and Japan (including their relationship with the West) and via the theories and techniques of medical anthropology and philosophy of psychiatry. Our core primary source materials include: letters, novels, books, and autobiographies produced by pioneering Indian and Japanese psy professionals and thinkers, alongside clinical case reports, reports of fieldwork, published patient testimony, film, and other art forms. Although our focus is upon exploring contemporary dilemmas through an historical lens, for the sake of clarity and ease of learning the course progresses broadly along chronological lines. |
| Course description |
Semester One: 1880s-1940s
Week 1: Introduction to the Course
Week 2: Contemporary Dilemmas 1: Psychotherapy and Cultural Psychology
Week 3: Contemporary Dilemmas 2: Transcultural Psychiatry
Week 4: Overview of the Psy Disciplines in the West, 1880s to 1940s
Week 5: Overview of India and Japan, 1880s to 1940s
Week 6: Psychiatry and the Colonial State in India
Week 7: Psychiatry and Modernization in Japan
Week 8: Psychoanalysis in India and Japan
Week 9: The Cultural Politics of Indian and Japanese ¿Counter-Therapies¿
Week 10: Fires on the Plain and No Longer Human: Wartime Autobiography
Week 11: Review/Summing Up
Semester Two: 1940s-the Present
Week 1: Contemporary Dilemmas 4: Mental Illness vs Problems in Society
Week 2: Contemporary Dilemmas 5: Religion, Psychosis, and the Ideal Self
Week 3: Overview of the Psy Disciplines in the West, mid-1950s to the Present
Week 4: Overview of India and Japan, mid-1940s to the Present
Week 5: Psychiatry, Public Health, and Psychopharmaceuticals in Post-Independence India
Week 6: The Concept of 'Japaneseness' and the Marketing of Medicine in Postwar Japan
Week 7: Ritual and Biomedical 'Healing' in Contemporary India
Week 8: Culture-Bound Syndromes and Social Crises in Japan: Taijinkyofusho and Hikikomori
Week 9: Mental Health, Religious Experience, and 'Cults' in India and Japan
Week 10: Counselling and Psycho-Spiritual Practices in Asia and the West: Self-Shaping, Self-Discovery, Self-Indulgence?
Week 11: Neuroscience - the End of the Psy Disciplines?
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Entry Requirements (not applicable to Visiting Students)
| Pre-requisites |
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Co-requisites | |
| Prohibited Combinations | |
Other requirements | A pass in 40 credits of third level historical courses or equivalent.
Before enrolling students on this course, Personal Tutors are asked to contact the History Honours Admission Secretary to ensure that a place is available (Tel: 503783).
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Course Delivery Information
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| Academic year 2014/15, Not available to visiting students (SS1)
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Quota: 15 |
| Course Start |
Full Year |
Timetable |
Timetable |
| Learning and Teaching activities (Further Info) |
Total Hours:
400
(
Seminar/Tutorial Hours 44,
Summative Assessment Hours 4,
Programme Level Learning and Teaching Hours 8,
Directed Learning and Independent Learning Hours
344 )
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| Assessment (Further Info) |
Written Exam
45 %,
Coursework
35 %,
Practical Exam
20 %
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| Additional Information (Assessment) |
Two essays of 3,000 words each, (35% of the overall assessment);
Two two-hour examinations (45% of the overall assessment); A class presentation (10% of the overall assessment); A class participation mark (10% of the overall assessment). |
| Feedback |
Not entered |
| Exam Information |
| Exam Diet |
Paper Name |
Hours & Minutes |
|
| Main Exam Diet S2 (April/May) | Paper 1 | 2:00 | | | Main Exam Diet S2 (April/May) | Paper 2 | 2:00 | |
Learning Outcomes
By the end of the course, students should be able to demonstrate by means of the essays, the exams, the presentation and participation in class discussions:
- An ability to tackle contemporary cultural questions, especially relating to selfhood and mental health, by framing these in historical and cross-cultural comparative terms;
- An ability to discuss subtle and sensitive topics, such as these, in a rigorous and careful manner, and writing about them in essay format;
- A strong general understanding of India and Japan's cultural history from 1880 to the Present, especially as it pertains to selfhood and mental health;
- A strong general understanding of how the 'psy disciplines' - psychiatry, psychotherapy, psychology - have emerged historically, both in the West and in Asia, and of their general principles of operation;
- A confidence in putting to use diverse source materials (see course description) in answering complex socio-cultural and philosophical questions;
- A familiarity with the basic languages and methodologies of medical anthropology and philosophy of psychiatry, and be able to deploy these in tandem with standard techniques of the modern historian.
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Additional Information
| Graduate Attributes and Skills |
- Enhanced reasoning skills where the careful choice of illustrative primary and secondary reading material is concerned.
- Ability to present and to defend in debate a set of ideas on a specific topic.
- Ability to combine theoretical methodologies in a coherent and productive way.
- Confidence in general group discussions.
- Awareness of the origins and principle themes in pressing contemporary questions of culture and mental health.
- Enhanced essay-writing abilities, developed through tackling conceptually complex topics with guidance from course organizer |
| Keywords | Modern Selves |
Contacts
| Course organiser | Dr Christopher Harding
Tel: (0131 6)50 9960
Email: Christopher.Harding@ed.ac.uk |
Course secretary | Ms Marie-Therese Rafferty
Tel: (0131 6)50 3780
Email: M.T.Rafferty@ed.ac.uk |
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