PSY 199 — Your Secret Mind: Getting to Know and Living with Your Unconscious
Spring
Wednesdays
7:00—9:05 pm
Date(s)
Mar 30—May 25
9 weeks
Drop By
Apr 12
2 Units
Fees
$405
Format
On-campus course
Limit 40
Open
This course introduces students to the motivational unconscious. Drawing on recent advances in neuroscience, as well as insights from psychoanalysis, modern psychiatry has been able to study the motivational unconscious in greater depth. Today, we better understand how unconscious attitudes, motives, and beliefs shape our everyday experience and decisions. Students will be introduced to methods such as hermeneutic analysis of art and sculpture, expressive writing, dream journaling, tracking memes, and slips of the tongue that will help them tap into their motivational unconscious for creative and other useful purposes. Taught in a case-based, problem-oriented format used in medical schools, this course will benefit all who work in mental health disciplines and the humanities. Writers, artists, actors, and anyone not afraid to look into the mirror will also benefit. The course is designed to lead participants to a deeper understanding of themselves and those around them.
Hans Steiner, Professor of Psychiatry and Human Development, Emeritus (Active), Stanford
Hans Steiner specializes in developmental approaches to psychopathology and integrated treatment. He is the director of the Pegasus Physician Writers at Stanford, composed of medical doctors who are also creative writers. He is particularly interested in bringing the insights of the humanities to the practice of medicine and the knowledge of medicine to the humanities. Steiner has published more than 500 papers, books, and abstracts, and has received numerous awards for his research and teaching. He received an MD from the University of Vienna.Textbooks for this course:
(Required) Various Authors, Course Reader (Available at the Stanford Bookstore).