Course Description
Introduces students to the history of psychiatry, from pre-modern treatments and understandings of mental illness to the development of psychiatry, psychology, and relevant developments in allied fields such as neuroscience. Though focused primarily on the United States, this course also ranges farther afield.
Athena Title
History of Psychiatry
Prerequisite
Any HIST course or ENGL 1101 or ENGL 1101E or ENGL 1101S or ENGL 1102 or ENGL 1102E or ENGL 1102S or POLS 1101 or POLS 1101E or POLS 1101H or POLS 1101S
Grading System
A - F (Traditional)
Student learning Outcomes
- By the end of this course, students will be able to arrive at conclusions about the history of psychiatry and mental illness by gathering and weighing evidence, logical argument, and listening to counter argument.
- By the end of this course, students will be able to write stylistically appropriate papers and essays. Students will be able to analyze ideas and evidence, organize their thoughts, and revise and edit their finished essays.
- By the end of this course, students will be able to identify how the history of psychiatry has shaped social attitudes toward mental illness, encouraging them to understand diverse worldviews and experiences.
- By the end of this course, students will be able to apply appropriate methodological approaches to their analysis of primary sources and to organize their evidence to show historical continuities and discontinuities.
Topical Outline
- Week 1: Theories of the Mind in Antiquity and the Medieval Era
- Week 2: The Lunatic Asylum: European and American Experiments
- Week 3: Nerves, Neurasthenia, and the Rest Cure
- Week 4: Hysteria and Gender
- Week 5: Freud and Psychoanalysis in Europe
- Week 6: World War I and the Shellshocked Veteran
- Week 7: Eugenics and Mental Hygiene
- Week 8: America in the Couch: Psychoanalysis in America
- Week 9: Fever Therapy, Shock Therapy, Psychosurgery
- Week 10: Psychiatry and Taxonomy: the DSM
- Week 11: The First Psychopharmacological Revolution
- Week 12: Deinstitutionalization and the Counterculture
- Week 13: The CBT (Cognitive Behavioral Therapy) Revolution
- Week 14: A Pill for Everything: Psychopharmacology Triumphant
Institutional Competencies Learning Outcomes
Analytical Thinking
The ability to reason, interpret, analyze, and solve problems from a wide array of authentic contexts.
Communication
The ability to effectively develop, express, and exchange ideas in written, oral, interpersonal, or visual form.
Critical Thinking
The ability to pursue and comprehensively evaluate information before accepting or establishing a conclusion, decision, or action.
