Program Overview

---

Our four-year BA Psychoanalytic Studies (including foundation year), will be suitable for you if your academic qualifications do not yet meet our entrance requirements for the three-year version of this course and you want a programme that increases your subject knowledge as well as improves your academic skills in order to support your academic performance. This four-year course includes a foundation year (Year Zero), followed by a further three years of study. During your Year Zero, you study three academic subjects relevant to your chosen course as well as a compulsory academic skills module, with additional English language for non-English speakers. You are an Essex student from day one, a member of our global community based at the most internationally diverse campus university in the UK. After successful completion of Year Zero in our Essex Pathways Department , you progress to complete your course with our Department of Psychosocial and Psychoanalytic Studies . From year one you will continue developing your academic skills alongside discovering the different schools of psychoanalysis and explore its applications to different settings and objects of study - from individual clinical work, to groups, culture and society. At its core, psychoanalysis believes that understanding human experience is not just about looking at external factors, from the places we live and work to the people we talk to, but also at internal ones - our inner motivations, fantasies, and defence mechanisms, to name a few. Beginning with an introduction to psychodynamic concepts as applied to individuals, relationships and organisations, the course goes on to provide a comprehensive account of child and adult development and critical overviews of both Freudian and Jungian psychology. From this foundation, psychodynamic approaches are then applied thematically to diverse areas including:

• The psychological factors that influence our emotions, behaviours and relationships
• The forces that drive human behaviour and interaction
• Literature and film
• War and trauma
• Sexuality

Why we're great.

• We offer you a unique opportunity to study psychoanalytic and psychosocial ideas and their applications with lecturers who are leading researchers and clinicians in their fields.
• Our course has been repeatedly commended for delivering inspiring content and achieving spectacular academic results.
• Our graduates go on to pursue exciting careers in many diverse fields including in the national and international charity sectors, policy and social work, clinical settings, as well as pursuing further academic research.

Our expert staff

We have some of the best teachers across the University in our Essex Pathways Department, all of whom have strong subject backgrounds and are highly skilled in their areas. Our Department of Psychosocial and Psychoanalytic Studies is internationally recognised as one of the leading departments for work that focuses on the role of the unconscious mind in mental health, as well as in culture and society generally. Our teaching is deeply grounded in knowledge deriving from clinical practice, to which our highest standards of academic thinking are then applied. Our staff blends clinical experience and expertise in their field with the academic rigour for which the Department of Psychosocial and Psychoanalytic Studies has such a reputation. You will be taught by lecturers who have years of experience, both in working directly with troubled individuals and groups and delivering lectures and seminars on specialist topics. This gives you the opportunity to work with and be taught by senior clinicians and world-class scholars in their fields. Our staff specialise in areas ranging from psychoanalysis and neuroscience, to practical therapies and anxiety in criminal psychopaths, to oral history interviewing. More information on their research is available on our staff pages .

---

Specialist facilities

By studying within our Essex Pathways Department for your foundation year, you will have access to all of the facilities that the University of Essex has to offer, as well as those provided by our Academy to support you:

• We provide computer labs for internet research; classrooms with access to PowerPoint facilities for student presentations; AV facilities for teaching and access to web-based learning materials
• Our Student Services Hub will support you and provide information for all your needs as a student
• Our social space is stocked with hot magazines and newspapers, and provides an informal setting to meet with your lecturers, tutors and friends

Our Department of Psychosocial and Psychoanalytic Studies provides excellent on-campus facilities:

• You will have access to the Albert Sloman Library , which houses a strong collection of books, journals, electronic resources and major archives
• The Department has its own dedicated library of specialist texts which inform and influence our research
• Free evening Open Seminars on topics relevant to psychoanalysis which are open to students, staff and members of the public.

---

Your future

In undertaking this course you’ll study a range of psychoanalytic concepts - applying them to individuals, relationships and organisations, which will provide you with a unique perspective of why we are the way we are, on understanding others and knowing how to relate to them, which will make you suited for further clinical training, postgraduate study in different fields, or employment. Key areas of employment for people with these skills include marketing, advertising, human resources, management, the media, care work, teaching or health care. Our future graduates may go to work in a wide range of careers, including:

• Therapeutic services
• NHS Mental Health work
• Psychoanalytic therapy
• Education
• Social Care
• Therapeutic Consultancy
• Management Consultancy
• Marketing and Public Relations
• Academia

We also work with the University’s Student Development Team to help you find out about further work experience, internships, placements, and voluntary opportunities.