Aims

- to supply the students interested by the field of "Psychology and Health" with some tools aimed to analyse the specific contributions of clinical psychology in the matter of mental health.
- to emphasise the study of the basic concepts allowing a comprehension of the various logics underlying the pathological processes; the approach thus prepares to the development of clinical anthropology, explaining the human being as a significant structure.

Main themes

- introduction to the theme of normal and pathological
- analysis of the basic concepts in order to approach the psychic life and the various forms of pathologies it can possibly generate
- analysis of the points of articulation of a structural nosography differentiating the major registers of pathology and questioning their mutual relationships

Content and teaching methods

- definitions of normal and pathological processes, and their mutual conceivable relationships
- analysis of the basic concepts (drives, phantasies, symptoms...) and those able to recapture the processes underlying the psychic life and the major "defense mechanisms" (repression, projection, denial, split, etc.)
- study of the nosological entities in order to evidence the specifical logics underlying the forms of pathologies concerned in the major fields : mood disorders, psychopathy and related problems; inversions and perversions; neurosis; psychosis.
- particular attention will be given to some new figures of pathology related to the society changes and revealing the current cultural uneasiness.

Other information (prerequisite, evaluation (assessment methods), course materials recommended readings, ...)

This course is complementary to the courses Psychiatry and psychopharmacology 1 and 2 (PSY 1263 and PSY 1333). It will rather emphasise the psychic and dynamic mechanisms and processes implied in the pathogeny and the possible evolutions of the various mental disorders.
Controlled exercises in this field.

Other credits in programs