Brain, Psyche, and Psychopathology

Catalog description

The course’s main goal is to have a better understanding of human psychopathology and psychotherapeutic processes according to contemporary research. It aims to integrate empirical knowledge from the areas of genetics, unconscious and conscious memory systems, neural bases of emotions, attachment, psychopathology, and psychotherapy. Therefore, it will be a merge of the fields of Behavioral Genetics, Cognitive Neuroscience, Affective Neuroscience, Evolutionary Psychiatry, Clinical Psychology, and Neuropsychoanalysis. The information and research evidence will be divided in five units with several lectures in each one: (1) Theoretical Evolution of the Human Psyche/Mind, (2) Molecular and Neural Bases of Emotions, (3) Unconscious and Conscious Memory Systems, (4) P1sychopathology, and (5) Implications for Psychotherapy. Emergent theorists (e.g. Eric Kandel, Antonio Damasio, Joseph LeDoux, Jaak Panksepp, and Mark Solms) that integrate unconscious and conscious processes involved in psychopathology and psychotherapy will be discussed. All this information will be analyzed from a clinical standpoint and with a special emphasis on the psychotherapeutic implications. Each student must write a theoretical paper as a requisite of the course.