Saturday, 1 March 2014

A comprehensive description of psychopathology (symptoms) or particular Psychopathological dynamics (Oedipus complex, Existential Angst) depicted, including a formal DSM-IV/ICD diagnosis of the protagonist or main character

Instructions
PAPER TOPIC:  I am providing the students with two options for their paper. First option is Analysis of Psychopathology in Popular Film, and the second, is Analysis of Psychopathology in a piece of literary work. Both, Literature and Popular media and films are a rich source of material addressing psychopathology and mental illness. You will be asked to view a relevant film or read a work of Literature. Then, I would like students to write a paper that addresses a number of relevant themes including the following:
1.    A comprehensive description of psychopathology (symptoms) or particular Psychopathological dynamics (Oedipus complex, Existential Angst) depicted, including a formal DSM-IV/ICD diagnosis of the protagonist or main character.This should include specific and relevant symptoms and biographical information that indicates how the person displays these dynamics or meets criteria for a particular mental disorder.  
2.    A reflection on the positive and negative messages that the film or story portray regarding the particular disorder or psychological dynamics.
3.    Discussion of how well or poorly the movie or Literary work characterizes the particular form(s) of psychopathology depicted.
4.    Identify a minimum of 3 SCENES either in the film or story that best the above points.
You will choose the movie or literary work you want to write the paper on, please don’t flood my inbox with questions regarding what movie or book to choose. For film suggestions, please refer to the "Psychology and Films Links" section below in the syllabus. For literary works, there are plenty of choices, both classical and modern, and you may want to do a web-search for specifics. A very short list of authors I do like are as follows: Sophocles, St Augustine, Avicenna, Shakespeare, Cervantes, Goethe, some of the Russian novelists are great (Dostoevsky, Tolstoy, Chekov), Robert Louis Stevenson, American novelists (Fitzgerald, Steinbeck, etc), many mystery novels from Agatha Christy or Arthur Conan Doyle, and many others. You may also choose an autobiography in lieu of a novel, but you need to check with me on that one.

The paper should be written using APA format ONLY, and it should be about 10 pages long NOT counting title page and bibliography (approx. 2500words). Consult your Librarian for guidance or information on APA style. I will also provide the students with a detailed “paper-matrix” that will further explain criteria for writing a good paper.


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