Master of Mind and Society: The Psychotherapies in Transition
The Master of Mind and Society is a cross-disciplinary postgraduate program focussing on psychotherapy in society. It explores the interface between medicine, psychodynamics, humanities and the social sciences, in order to address the changing social context which shapes mind and self, and to come to terms with the shifting parameters of psychotherapeutic practice. It is offered by the Faculty of Arts in conjunction with the Faculty of Medicine, Nursing and Health Sciences.
Intellectually, the program is organised around three questions:
- How does society shape the mind and the self? Is the role of 'the social' changing in modern multicultural societies?
- What influence do theories of the mind have on contemporary culture and society?
- How do contemporary advances in neuroscience affect understandings of the mind, the self, the social world and the practice of psychotherapy?
The Mind and Society program allows you to obtain a Master of Mind and Society, a Graduate Diploma of Mind and Society, or a Graduate Certificate of Mind and Society.
Upon completion of the Master of Mind and Society you may be eligible for entry to a PhD program.
Who are Mind and Society programs for?
- Practitioners in any of the mental health or associated professions who have completed a Bachelor's degree in an approved discipline or have equivalent formal training
- Postgraduate students in the Humanities and Social Sciences
- Medical students and postgraduate students in Psychological Medicine
- Postgraduate students in Education
While Mind and Society is not a training program, professional practitioners can apply for professional development credits for some Mind and Society units.
Who are Mind and Society programs for?
- Practitioners in any of the mental health or associated professions who have completed a Bachelor's degree in an approved discipline or have equivalent formal training
- Postgraduate students in the Humanities and Social Sciences
- Medical students and postgraduate students in Psychological Medicine
- Postgraduate students in Education
While Mind and Society is not a training program, professional practitioners can apply for professional development credits for some Mind and Society units.
Organisation of the program
The program comprises two core units and three elective streams.
The two core units are team-taught in seminar mode by senior scholars in psychological medicine and social science, and emphasise interactive, intellectually intense and informal modes of learning.
Students choose from a large number of elective units, which could be organised into three thematic streams:
- Mind and social relations
- Mind, culture and history
- Mind, psychodynamics and psychiatry
The Faculty of Arts units offered are drawn from politics, history, bioethics, philosophy, language and culture, and sociology.
The Faculty of Medicine, Nursing and Health Sciences units offered are drawn from psychological medicine and its associated departments.
Class times and locations
The course can be taken full-time or part-time. Mid year entry is permitted. Most units are offered in the late afternoon or early evening. Some electives are offered in condensed mode in the summer or the winter, and some electives are offered online, at Caulfield and Clayton campuses and at clinical sites around Melbourne.
Entry requirements
Candidates for admission will normally have completed a Bachelor's degree in any approved discipline, or equivalent formal training. Prior learning or relevant employment experience will also be considered either for entry or for advanced standing at the discretion of the Course Coordinator.
Course structure
The Master of Mind and Society is designed as a three semester full-time or six semester part-time course, representing 72 points of coursework (normally six units).
This comprises the two core units:
and four elective 12 point units.
Students will select one elective stream, in which they will take the majority of their electives.
(Note: some electives offered by the Department of Psychological Medicine represent 6 points of coursework, and must be combined in groups of two units to make up the required points.)
Core Units
MIN4000 Introduction to Mind and Society
This unit introduces students to the conceptual framework of social psychotherapy. The organising principle of this unit is that society (social relations, culture, institutions and social history) shapes the self and the mind in the modern world: the self is socially constructed. But the modern world is also shaped by theories of subjectivity: theories of the mind and self have defined our understanding of modernity and the possibly post-modern world. In this unit we examine the interdependence of mind and society through several themes including the self and modernity, power and citizenship in contemporary multi-cultural society, and the nature of psychotherapy as a profession.
MIN5010 Contested Terrain: The Politics of Psychotherapy in Transition
This unit introduces students to some of the most difficult social issues confronting modern societies, and places these within a psychotherapeutic context. Each of the themes will be organised in a two week bloc. In the first week a notable expert on the question will speak, and students will read his/her writing as well as social and political material on the issue, for context. The second week will be devoted to seminar-format work, sometimes with case material.
The social issues addressed will be taken from this list:
- Trauma
- The status of anxiety: disease, or integral part of the human experience?
- What challenges do advances in neuroscience pose for the psychotherapies?
- The condition of refugees
- Spirituality
- Boundary violations and the ethics of practice
- The ethics of corporations
Elective Streams and Units
Unless otherwise noted all units are 12 points. 6 point units must be taken in groups of two.
Mind and Social Relations
CHB4203 /CHB5203 Ethical issues in patient care (Dr Justin Oakley)
CHB5207 Ethical issues in professional life (Dr Justin Oakley)
HYM4200 History and memory (Assoc Prof Bain Atwood)
LLC4050 /LLC5050 Freud's Vienna (Dr Christiane Weller)
MHT0004 Organisational and group aspects of the school environment (Dr Howard Cooper) Off-campus delivery
MIN5080 Race, self and social conflict (Prof Gillian Straker)
MIN5090 Pathologies of the self (Prof Ian Gold)
PLM4145 /PLM5145 Crises of reason: psyche, society, morality (Dr Michael Janover)
PLM4390 /PLM5390 Grand theories in politics (Dr Michael Janover)
Mind, Culture and History
HYM4200 History and memory (Assoc Prof Bain Atwood)
HYM4270 /HYM5270 Research methods in biography and life writing (Prof Barbara Caine)
HYM4280 /HYM5280 Reading and writing biography and life stories (Prof Barbara Caine)
HYM4900 /HYM5900 History, biography and autobiography (Prof Barbara Caine)
LLC4040 /LLC5040 Writing madness (Dr Christiane Weller)
LLC4050 /LLC5050 Freud's Vienna (Dr Christiane Weller)
PLM4145 /PLM5145 Crises of reason: psyche, society, morality (Dr Michael Janover)
PHM5070 The Greeks and the good Life (Dr Dirk Baltzly)
Mind, Psychodynamics and Psychiatry
CMH2001 Mental health of the elderly (6) Off-campus delivery
CMH2003 Transcultural mental health (6) Off-campus delivery
CMH2004 Mental health in rural settings (6) (Prof Graham Meadows)
DCP0001 Psychoanalytic and developmental theories (6)
DCP0003 Psychoanalytic and developmental theories II (6)
DCP0005 Principles of child psychotherapy (6)
DCP0006 Principles of adolescent psychotherapy (6) (Ms Jeanette Beaufoy)
MHT0003 Counselling techniques for members of the teaching professions Off-campus delivery
MHT0004 Organisational and group aspects of the school environment (Dr Howard Cooper)
Plus: Research Project (24 points)
(MIN5020 /MIN5020(A) /MIN5020(B) Research Project in Mind and Society
Academic profiles
Convenors and Course Coordinators
Professor Carla Lipsig-Mummé (Research Professor, School of Political and Social Inquiry, Monash, Professor, York University Canada): social psychoanalysis, regulating the professions, power in large organisations, labour and globalisation, women and trade unions, young workers and social identity.
Dr. Christiane Weller (Lecturer in German Studies, School of Languages, Cultures and Linguistics) contemporary German literature, Fin-de-siècle writing, psychosis and writing, memory studies, Freudian and Lacanian psychoanalysis.
Professor Graeme Smith (Professor Emeritus, School of Psychology, Psychiatry and Psychological Medicine): individual and group psychotherapy, complex physical and psychological illness.
Course lecturers
Lecturers are senior academics who take an adventurous, inter-disciplinary approach to research and teaching. They are distinguished for their intellectual involvement with national and international professional associations and research projects in the European Union, Canada and the United States. In addition, practicing psychotherapists and psychiatrists who are engaged with large-scale social issues and the role of the public intellectual will offer intensive units in summer and winter.
Further Information
Dr Christiane Weller (academic information)
Telephone: +61 3 9905 2245
Email: Christiane.Weller@arts.monash.edu.au
Ms Sally Riley (general enquiries)
Telephone: +61 3 9905 5409
Email: Sally.Riley@arts.monash.edu.au