Psychology of Art and Culture

Course Description
This course introduces several psychological approaches, including psychological, psychoanalytic, psychosocial, and neuroscientific, to the study of art, culture, and society. Areas of application include film, painting, literature, art therapy, psychohistory, consciousness, dreams, surrealism, gender, ecology, and economics. This course is a required course for a range of further psychological and psychoanalytic courses at AAU, including Psychoanalysis and Art, Psychoanalysis and Society, the Psychology of Environmental Crisis, and Screening Desire/Projecting Anxiety: The Psychoanalysis of Film. This course therefore serves as a foundation for and introduction to the key concepts, theories and approaches necessary for a deeper engagement in the psychoanalysis of culture, but also functions as a stand-alone course for all those interested in art, culture, psychology or society to understand the basic tools, concepts and approaches in this area.

Course Learning Outcome
Upon completion of this course, students should be able to:
–Demonstrate abilities to apply definitions and main concepts of different psychological theories to explain and interpret different aspects of art, society, and culture;
–Learn theoretically and experimentally about the clinical practice of art therapy;
–Provide evidence of their abilities to analyze, synthesize and evaluate the studied material through active participation in class;
–Compare and contrast difference between the psychological theories, outline the limits and controversies individual theories imply when describing the same phenomena;
–Select 2 theories of choice and in presentation and paper demonstrate their in-depth familiarity with theories' conceptual frameworks, and ability to apply those in interpretation of an artistic, cultural, social phenomenon of choice;
–Will demonstrate and defend their individual critical evaluation and critically review other fellow students' positions;
–Students will show active pursuit of in-depth discussions in seminars, ability to lead a class debate on a topic of choice, and demonstrate attainment of interpretive psychoanalytic perspectives applicable to a wide range of topics in art, society, and culture.