Fall 2002
Instructor:  Mark Kunkel

Office: Melson 220
Phone:  836-4576
Office Hours: Mostly by appointment, but I’m around a lot
 

Course description and objectives:

from the catalog:
A seminar designed to explore theoretical and practical issues of psychological difficulty and well-being…

Hmm….from David Wilcox:
Pulling at the tether, pawing at the ground,
    driven to the same old place.
The thunder in the distance is a captivating sound:
    can't tell if it's ecstasy or pain,
But Saturday they'll all be back again.

So, “psychopathology”?  “Health”?  Both?  Neither?  Who knows…it depends…we’ll see when we get there.

My best guess about how things might go is that we will organize our seminar time together around considerations of “big questions” in psychopathology and health.  I have some preliminary and hard-won notions about what these questions might be, but hold the principles of group process far too sacred to assume that I know better than we know.  So, this syllabus map is a preliminary and tentative guide to our beginning a journey, okay?

We will consider various definitions of “abnormal” and “normal” in the psychology of human experience, trace their origins to important theoretical foundations, explore diagnostic and classification schemes pertaining to each, and consider various categories of “psychopathology.”  We’ll decide along the way how much to emphasize each of these themes, and give attention to what is most interesting to us.  Of course, all of this is ridiculously ambitious for a short semester; at best we will hope for an emerging acquaintance with what might matter.  It will be a very good outcome of the course if some of what we think we know is called into question, and we have a sense of where we might go for more questions and some provisional outcomes in the future: “If (the patient) brings money and time, we shall have a nice analysis.  If in the process there are also some gains for her, so much the better” (Freud to Fleiss).
 

Readings:

I have struggled mightily to find a text that does justice to this topic, and haven’t really found one.  But I think I’ve come close with the following three:

      Halgin, R. P.  (2002).  Taking sides: Clashing views on controversial issues in abnormal psychology (2nd ed.). Duskin/McGraw-Hill.
      Monte, Christopher (1993).  Still, Life: Clinical portraits in psychopathology.  Prentice-Hall.
 An undergraduate “Abnormal Psychology” text of your choice….

I am also always on the lookout for readings that speak to the questions I think we may raise together, and will distribute them to you week-to-week as we develop a way of being with the topics.   I’ll try to have the readings for the following week to distribute each Thursday in class.  Sometimes this will be difficult because we won’t quite know what next week will bring, and in that case we’ll come up with a collaborative approach to this problem, and it will be fine.

You’ll note that the three texts already hint at two primary data sources for the class.  First we’ll attend to the “textbook” portrayal of human struggle and victory, and will learn the rich and kind and precise language of clinical description and explanation around various categories of struggle and victory.  Additionally the selection of Still, Life might rightly be interpreted as reflecting an emphasis on echoing, amplifying, and celebrating  the generous and courageous perspectives of those struggling with life in various categories of “deviance.”  You’ll also be doing some of this work individually in preparation for your “guest expertship” around selected topics.  As we too “hear voices” together, in this case the voices of those who live life in struggle, our class interactions will be much the richer as a result.
 

Class Activities and requirements:

 Because we will be drawing on the human experience as the primary data source for the class, it is essential that each of us attends and participates.  Our meetings will include some organizational lecture material, but for the most part will be devoted to a meeting of minds around the intriguing issues raised in our readings and their reflections in our lives.  Additional course activities will include:

1. Ancillary readings and response (?).  The readings I have selected for each week will be a poor sampling of the territory at best.  I would like each of you to use these readings as a catalyst for your curiosity, and having read them, to get over to the library and find something else that lights your fire around these topics.  Then prepare a BRIEF (one-page) summary and critique of your reading, as it relates to your experience and to the assigned readings, to hand in during the class meeting in which that topic is discussed.  We’ll consider various ways to do this in our first class meeting.
2. Guest expertship in which each of you will help facilitate our discussion of selected topics.  Following your review of the tentative meeting schedule, you will be asked to select one area of discussion in which to “specialize.”  This will probably be the condition you also emphasize in your choice of autobiographical accounts, but not necessarily.  Read your supplementary book and gather any other material (films?  song lyrics?  paintings?) that grabs your interest or that might be helpful for the class, and feel free to meet with me with any questions.  When the time comes to discuss your chosen topic in class you will be expected to contribute to and facilitate class discussion.
3. Examinations.  There will be a couple of take-home examinations throughout the semester.  I’ll always announce these at least one week in advance. The purpose of these will be to help consolidate some of your learning through giving you opportunities for in-depth examination of some of the course topics.  The examinations will also give me some information about your journey through the material and ways that I might better accompany you.
4. Topical paper.  In ten typed pages or so I would like you to attempt an integration of the various data sources for the class.  That is, in your chosen area of specialization, summarize and critique the diagnostic and autobiographical perspectives you have read, and cast each within the context of the course material as a whole and of our classroom interactions.  You will also want to evaluate the relation between the lived experience of life in your chosen category (e.g., what we term “depression”) and the diagnostic description of life in this category as it relates to health and “mental illness.”
 

Evaluation:
I will give you detailed feedback on the level of performance corresponding to various grades, and each of you is welcome to visit with me whenever you choose regarding your progress in the class.  You should understand, though, that I view the notion of grading as inherently troublesome and that our journey will go much better when you view me as a companion and guide rather than as a judge.  This is not to say that I take grading casually, but only to remind you that if you are more concerned with your grade than with your learning, you will probably do poorly in both territories.
 

Tentative Schedule

The topical schedule that follows reflects my initial sense of how I might be helpful to you in (a) grounding our discussion about various psychological disorders in relevant theories of health and struggle (four meetings), (b) spending some time on models of diagnosis and classification (two meetings), and (c) acquainting you with various categories of disorders (the remaining nine meetings).  You’ll notice immediately that this gives short shrift to the disorders; spending a week on depression for example is ludicrous.  The alternative is to trim the theory piece, but I’m reluctant to do that.  You’ll also notice that we spend relatively little time on “wellness” per se.  We’ll wind up spending more than we think.  Anyway, here’s my best guess….

Week      Topical Question(s)

1 What is health?  What is difficulty?
· models of sick/well
· can we tell the difference?
Issue 3: Is Multiple Personality Disorder a Valid Diagnosis?
      Issue 4: Does Attention Deficit Disorder Exist?
      Issue 6: Does Post-Abortion Syndrome Exist?

2 Stories about struggle: Psychoanalysis
· important constructs
· model of “sick” and “well”
· implications for understanding and intervention

3 Stories about struggle: Behavior/Cognitive-Behavioral
· important constructs
· model of “sick” and “well”
· implications for understanding and intervention

4 Stories about struggle: Humanistic/Existential/Transpersonal
· important constructs
· model of “sick” and “well”
· implications for understanding and intervention

5 Stories about struggle: Biology
· important constructs
· model of “sick” and “well”
· implications for understanding and intervention

6 How do we understand?
· assessment
· classification and “diagnosis”
· research
Monte 1 (Tools)
Issue I: Is the DSM-IV a Useful Classification System?
      Issue 2: Is There Gender Bias in the DSM-IV?

7 What does it mean to struggle with “depression”?
· Major Depression
· Dysthymia
· Bipolar disorder
Issue 20. Is Electroconvulsive Therapy Ethical?
 

8 What does it mean to struggle with “anxiety”?
· Panic
· Phobia
· PTSD
Monte 6 (Body and Soul)
Monte 7 (Never Say Uncle)
Issue 7. Are Repressed Memories Valid?

9 What does it mean to struggle with “schizophrenia”?
· Paranoia
· Catatonia
· The schizophrenias
Monte 12 (Gabriel Grande)

10 What does it mean to struggle with “addictions” and “eating disorders”?
· Dependence and abuse
· Anorexia
· Bulimia
Monte 8 (Pest Control)
 Issue 5. Is MDMA (Ecstasy) a Dangerous Drug?

11 What does it mean to struggle with “personality disorder”?
· Eccentric (paranoid, schizoid, schizotypal)
· Dramatic (histrionic, borderline, narcissistic, antisocial)
· Anxious (obsessive-compulsive, avoidant, dependent)
Monte 2 (MaxiMum)
Monte 9 (Space and Time)
Monte 10 (Ida Mann)
Monte 11 (Cogito Ergo Sum Kinda Cat)

12 What does it mean to struggle sexually?
· Gender identity
· Sexual dysfunctions
· Paraphilias
Monte 5 (Prime Minister)
Monte 13 (Hard Times)
Issue 18. Is Sexual Orientation Conversion Therapy Ethical?

13 What does it mean to struggle with the unfolding of being?
· Developmental vicissitudes
· Mental retardation and related syndromes
Monte 3 (Pain in the Family Glass)
Monte 4 (John Wayne’s War)
Monte 14 (Going to Pizzas)
Monte 15 (Play it Slow, Sam)
 Issue 10. Is Ritalin Overprescribed?

14   What does it mean to struggle with a broken brain?
· Mental retardation/developmental delay
· Dementia
· Head injury
 
15   So what?
 Issue 9. Has Too Much Emphasis Been Placed on Empirically Supported Therapies?
Issue 11. Should Psychosurgery Be Used to Treat Certain Psychological Conditions?
Issue 16. Has the Deinstitutionalization of the Mentally Ill Worked?