Michel Foucault (1972): “History of madness” – Routledge, 2006
Ronald Laing (1960): “The Divided Self: An Existential Study in Sanity and Madness” – Penguin Classics, 2010
At the end of this course, the student will:
1. Understand the approach of Psychodynamic Psychiatry in clinical practice;
2. Complete a thorough history taking and conduct an initial assessment;
3. Become familiar with the clinical presentation of the most common mental disorders;
4. Recognise symptoms and signs of severe and enduring mental illness;
5. Understand the available treatments commonly used in psychiatry;
6. Understand the place of the medical psychiatric approach within the multidisciplinary care of psychiatric patients;
7. Proficiently work with psychiatrists within multidisciplinary teams.
Week 1: INTRODUCTION TO PSYCHIATRY
Day 1: Mind, brain, psyche
Normality and pathology: definitions
Introduction to Psychodynamic Psychiatry
Day 2: The psychiatric patient: characteristics, dynamics, requests.
The psychiatrist and the therapeutic relationship.
The use of psychotropic medications: psychodynamic aspects and critical
considerations.
Day 3: The first psychiatric interview – history taking and clinical assessment
Week 2: CLINICAL PSCHIATRY 1 - PSYCHOSES
Day 1: Schizophrenia
Day 2: Bipolar affective disorder
Day 3: The psychotic experience
Week 3: CLINICAL PSYCHIATRY 2 - PERSONALITY DISORDERS
Day 1: Personality disorders: general characteristics and classification
Emotionally unstable personality disorder
Day 2: Narcissistic personality disorder
Day 3: Antisocial personality disorder
Formal presentations on each topic;
Clinical vignettes;
Questions and answers sessions;
Students will be encouraged to present their clinical experience for group discussion.
• A dissertation of 5000 words (+/- 10%) - excluding references
• The topic will be chosen by the candidate, within or outside the course topics
• The candidate chooses the structure of the dissertation according to the topic (i.e., a case presentation will be different from a literature review)
• It is recommended to verify the appropriateness of the topic with the teacher in advance
• The quality of the literature search will be evaluated, together with the development of the dissertation topic and the structure given to the dissertation
• References can be presented in a format chosen by the candidate (Harvard or others)
• The dissertation is to be emailed to the teacher in word version
• Email address: micol.ascoli@nhs.net
• The deadline for the completion of the dissertation will be 14 days prior to the chosen exam date
Attending and non-attending students take the same exam.
If the teaching is taught in mixed mode or remotely, changes can be made compared to what is stated in the syllabus to make the course and exams usable also in these ways.