Diploma in Psychotherapy Course Syllabus

OUTLINE

This Diploma program focuses on counseling that is aimed to help clients with psychological problems and difficulties, that is, psychotherapy.

The course begins with an examination of Freud’s psychoanalysis, the original form of

Psychotherapy, because, it is argued, the other major forms of psychotherapy are all elaborations on, or reactions against, psychoanalysis, and they cannot be understood without a familiarity with psychoanalysis. Then the three major forms of individual psychotherapy at use today are studied: person-centered therapy (originally developed by Carl Rogers), cognitive therapy (originally developed by Aaron Beck), and contemporary psychodynamic therapy. Throughout the examination of these forms of therapy, attention is paid to research on the therapeutic effectiveness of the different forms of therapy.

Finally, three other types of therapy are studied: group therapy, marital therapy, and therapy for drug abuse and alcoholism.

There will be three tests spaced during the quarter, each test covering about one-third of the material. Doing well on the tests requires mastery of portions of the readings and the information from the lectures. There are also three mini-assignments related to the different forms of therapy, for example, one assignment involves completing and commenting upon a Qsortb  test (a method of research much used in the person-centered tradition). These three assignments are graded pass-fail; your grade will be affected if an assignment is not completed.

The Administrator will check to see that they are handed in, but will not return them. Please submit hard copies of these assignments.

The goal of the course is for the students to learn about the major approaches to Psychotherapy, the theories on which they are based, the processes and techniques used in practicing these psychotherapies, and the research on their effectiveness.

Grading

Your grade will be an average of your grades on the three tests.

The tests fulfill the necessary role of providing the Institute with an objective means of evaluating your performance in the course. It is also seen as an integral part of the learning process because the tests encourage you to master the basics of the methods of counseling that we are studying.

We try to make a point of keeping the reading assignments moderate so that we can expect you to study the reading carefully. Through the reading, plus the lectures, you should be able to learn each of the methods of therapy that we are studying. The tests will be straight-forward and fair, covering the information from the readings and lectures. Since the tests rely a great deal on the lectures, make sure you borrow someone else’s lecture notes if you have to miss a class or contact your instructor at email: dellis@caribinfinity.net.

(Note: We do not grade on a curve; you will not hurt your grade by helping someone out through lending your notes.)

The questions on the tests will be short-answer questions.

Introduction to the Course

Defining the Subject

Ancient Foundations, Greek Philosophers and Physicians

Minds Possessed, Witchery and the Search for Explanations

The Emergence of Modern Science, Locke’s ‘Newtonian’ Theory of Mind

Three Enduring ‘isms’- Empiricism, Rationalism, Materialism

Sensation and Perception

The Visual Process

Perceptual Constancies and Illusions

Freudian Psychoanalysis

Freud’s Life and Work

Freud’s Debt to Darwin

Freud, Breuer, and the Theory of Repression

Freud’s Theory of Psychosexual Development

Critiques of Freudian Theory

Freud’s Psycho-Analytic Procedure

Freud’s Debt to Darwin

Freud, Breuer, and the Theory of Repression

Freud’s Theory of Psychosexual Development

Critiques of Freudian Theory

Cognitive and Cognitive-Behavioral Therapies

What Is Personality?

Obedience and Conformity

Altruism

Prejudice and Self-Deception

Person-Centered Therapy

Perceptual Constancies and Illusions

Learning and Memory, Associationism, Aristotle to Ebbinghaus

Pavlov and the Conditioned Reflex

Cognitive and Cognitive-Behavioral Therapies.

Psychology and Social development

Watson and American Behaviorism

B.F. Skinner and Modern Behaviorism

B.F. Skinner and the Engineering of Society

Language

The Integration of Experience

Perception and Attention

Cognitive ‘Maps,’ ‘Insight,’ and Animal Minds

Memory Revisited, Mnemonics and Context

The Development of Moral Reasoning

Knowledge, Thinking, and Understanding

Comprehending the World of Experience, Cognition Summarized

Psychobiology, Nineteenth-Century Foundations

Language and the Brain

Rationality, Problem-Solving, and Brain Function

The ‘Emotional’ Brain, The Limbic System

Violence and the Brain

Psychopathology, The Medical Model

Artificial Intelligence and the Neuro-cognitive Revolution

Is Artificial Intelligence ‘Intelligent’

What Makes an Event ‘Social’

Socialization, Darwin and the ‘Natural History’ Method