PSY 6322 Issues in Clinical Psychology
Primary source readings in Freud, Jaspers, Rorschach, Murray, Allport, Rogers, Sullivan, Leary as well as the DSM-IV Guidebook provide the basis for this seminar. Descriptive versus explanatory approaches to psychopathology are considered along with the current trend towards evidence-based practice. Psychodynamic and humanistic traditions are distinguished from their psychometric counterpart. The standard psychiatric nomenclature of the DSM-IV is presented along with its implications for the professional treatment of
psychological "illness". Toward the end of the semester students examine critiques
of existing systems of diagnostic classification and the psychopharmaceutical treatment of mental illness (Szasz, Laing, Keen).