Inner and Outer Worlds: psychoanalytic and psychosocial understandings

• Credit value: 30 credits at Level 4
• Convenor: Clea McEnery-West
• Assessment: two 2000-word essays (50% each)

In this module we explore the key psychoanalytic ideas of the unconscious and inner world, together with a psychodynamic understanding of attachment and loss, and link them up with basic ideas from psychosocial studies for understanding the social world (e.g. identity, culture, power and social inequality). We will build on the teaching of the basic psychodynamic listening skills in the module Listening, Self-reflection and the Counselling Framework to enable you to listen out for unconscious communications.

By the end of this module, you will be able to:

• describe concepts from psychoanalysis and psychosocial studies which contribute to an understanding of  ‘inner’ and ‘outer’ worlds, and discuss their inter-relation
• understand the relevance to the practice of psychodynamic counselling in a psychosocial setting of: the analytic attitude; diversity, difference and equality; attachment and loss; ethics and boundaries
• use counselling skills developed in Listening, Self-reflection and the Counselling Framework to establish, conduct and conclude a supportive, helping conversation with due regard for boundaries, ethics and diversity and equality, and begin to listen out for unconscious communication in the process and content of material which may relate to: transference and repetition; anxiety, resistance and defences; attachment and loss.