FYW-1195 Psychic Disorder

Explores how and why certain emotional states and patterns of thought become labeled pathological or disruptive. It also considers what cultural values, both positive and negative, those psychic states have come to symbolize. By reading fiction in dialogue with both contemporary scientific accounts of mental function and its broader cultural context, and by connecting modern health debates to their historical origins, students examine the tension between freedom and restraint that characterizes debates about psychic disorder. Students will study and write about these ideas in ways structured to develop interpretive, analytical, and argumentative writing skills appropriate for college-level work. 4 credits.