Philosophy of Mental Disorder is taught jointly by the Department of Philosophy and the Institute of Psychiatry. The focus is on a variety of issues in the Philosophy of Psychiatry and the Philosophy of Psychology. The Dissertation must be on a topic in these areas. Also accessible if you have little philosophy at undergraduate level. Provides a solid knowledge base to progress to independent research.
KEY BENEFITS
- Unique graduate degree that focuses on fundamental issues at the intersection between philosophy and mental disorder.
- Seminars are taught by expert researchers from the Institute of Psychiatry, and philosophy from throughout the University of London.
- Unrivalled London location allows students access to a huge array of talks and conferences on topics relevant to the degree.
KEY FACTS
Student destinations
Academic work involving philosophy, teaching, journalism, cultural management or the financial sector. Others take up or return to work in the field of mental health.
Programme leader/s
Dr Matteo Mameli
Awarding Institution
King's College London
Credit value (UK/ECTS equivalent)
UK 180/ECTS 90
Duration
One year FT, two years PT, September to September.
Location
Strand Campus and the Institute of Psychiatry, Denmark Hill. Campus.
Year of entry 2013
Offered by
School of Arts and Humanities
Department of Philosophy
Interdisciplinary department
Closing date
31 July 2013 .
Please note that applicants wishing to apply for funding (e.g. AHRC) must submit their application by the relevant funding deadline, which is usually early in the year. Please see
http://www.kcl.ac.uk/study/pg/funding/sources/index.aspx for information on the available funding opportunities and deadlines.
Approximately 10.
Fees
PT Home: £3950 (2013)
PT Overseas: £8125 (2013)
FT Home: £7900 (2013)
FT Overseas: £16250 (2013)
CONTACTS
Contact information
Postgraduate Officer, Centre for Arts & Sciences Admissions (CASA)
tel: +44 (0) 20 7848 2765 / 2232 / 7232
fax: +44 (0) 20 7848 7200
Email
Website
PURPOSE
The MSc in Philosophy of Mental Disorder is the result of a collaboration between the Department Philosophy and the Institute of Psychiatry at King's College London. The programme is taught jointly by these two institutions and, for this reason, it is genuinely and helpfully interdisciplinary.
The main focus is obviously the theory of mental disorder. The programme provides a unique opportunity to examine conceptual and theoretical issues arising at the intersection of philosophy, psychology, psychiatry and social science. More generally it provides the opportunity to examine the philosophical and conceptual problems raised by the study of the human mind.
DESCRIPTION
The degree requires one year of full-time study or two years of part-time study. It includes a coursework component as well as a dissertation. The coursework component is divided into taught modules, including: The Concept of Mental Disorder (40 credits), Models of Psycholpathology (40 credits), Philosophy of Psychology I (20 credits), Philosophy of Psychology II (20 credits), Philosophy of Mind I (20 credits), Philosophy of Mind II (20 credits).
Each taught modules involves both lectures and seminars. The dissertation is worth 60 credits. Full-time students select taught modules among those offered in the year they are taking the course. Part-time students choose taught modules for a total of 80 credits in their first year and for a total of 40 credits in their second year (in the second year they also write their dissertation).
Applications from part-time study are welcome. As far as possible the timetable is structured to assist students with professional commitments.
STRUCTURE OVERVIEW
Core programme content
- Dissertation (60 credits).
Indicative non-core content
Students choose 120 credits from a variety of taught modules including:
- The Concept of Mental Disorder: philosophical, scientific and ethical perspectives (40 credits)
- Models of Psychopathology: meaning and causal connections in the explanation of disorder (40 credits)
- Ethics of Science & Technology (20 credits)
- Philosophy of Psychology I: various topics (20 credits)
- Philosophy of Psychology II: various topics (20 credits)
- Philosophy of Mind I: various topics (20 credits)
- Philosophy of Mind II: various topics (20 credits)
FORMAT AND ASSESSMENT
Taught modules are assessed by submitted essays or sat examination. The dissertation is due in September.
MODULES
More information on typical programme modules.
NB it cannot be guaranteed that all modules are offered in any particular academic year.
Teaching staff: Dr Matteo Mameli
Module code: 7AAN2013
Credit level: 7
Credit value: 20
Semester:
Semester 2 (spring)
Teaching pattern: one weekly one-hour lecture and one weekly one-hour seminar
Assessment:
coursework
Formative assessment: 1 x 2,000–3,000-word essay. Summative assessment: 1 x 4,000-word essay.
Science and technology transform the world, including the social and political world. They also transform the ways in which human persons experience the world and the ways in which they can exercise their freedom. Are such transformations good or bad? How can we evaluate them? Can we learn anything from utopian and dystopian conceptions? Whose views should control the governance of science and technology? How can we avoid elitism, paternalism, the distortions of commercialization, and the tyranny of the ignorant? Should we welcome – and perhaps even promote at a collective level – the kind of “enhancements” that, for example, biomedical technologies and information technologies make available? Or should we see them as a threat to our own very humanity and to our most fundamental interests as moral beings? Are such enhancements instruments of social progress, personal liberation, perhaps even of collective salvation? Or are they instruments of oppression, injustice, dehumanization, and destruction?
http://www.kcl.ac.uk/artshums/depts/philosophy/modules/level7/7aan2013.aspx
Teaching staff: Dr Maria Alvarez
Module code: 7AAN2062
Credit level: 7
Credit value: 20
Semester:
Semester 2 (spring)
Teaching pattern: one weekly one-hour lecture and one weekly one-hour seminar
Assessment:
coursework
Formative assessment: 1 x 2,000–3,000-word essay; Summative assessment: 1 x 4,000-word essay.
This module will be specifically concerned with topics in the Philosophy of Action. Possible topics may include the nature of actions and omissions in general, and more specifically of intentional actions and omissions; reasons for action, intentions, and the explanation of action; the mind-body problem or more generally the relationship between the physical and the mental; the nature of consciousness; the relevance of empirical results for the Philosophy of Mind
http://www.kcl.ac.uk/artshums/depts/philosophy/modules/level7/7aan2062.aspx
Teaching staff: Dr Nick Shea
Module code: 7AAN2066
Credit level: 7
Credit value: 20
Semester:
Semester 1 (autumn)
Teaching pattern: one weekly one-hour lecture and one weekly one-hour seminar
Assessment:
coursework
Formative assessment: 1 x 2,000–3,000-word essay; Summative assessment: 1 x 4,000-word essay.
Philosophical issues about the nature of representational content have become pressing in recent years with the rise of cognitive neuroscience, which appears to go further and locates representations in concrete processes in the brain. This course will explain the foundational principles underlying these psychological sciences and examine the central philosophical questions they raise about what representations are and how information-processing explanations work.
http://www.kcl.ac.uk/artshums/depts/philosophy/modules/level7/7aan2066.aspx
Teaching staff: Dr Matteo Mameli
Module code: 7AAN2067
Credit level: 7
Credit value: 20
Semester:
Semester 2 (spring)
Teaching pattern: one weekly one-hour lecture and one weekly one-hour seminar
Assessment:
coursework
Formative assessment: 1 x 2,000–3,000-word essay; Summative assessment: 1 x 4,000-word essay.
This year’s course will focus on some of the questions listed below:What is the nature of subjectivity and of the freedom that characterizes it? How does one “constitute oneself as an ethical subject”? Is the self a “center of narrative gravity”? In what sense, if any, does the self have a narrative structure? How are self-conceptions, conceptions of the self and conceptions of types of people related to behaviours, experiences and relationships? How are they affected by cognitive and emotional constraints, by discursive practices, by institutions and cultural processes? What are, in this context, the possibilities for change and for action? What is the “specter of creeping exculpation” and how can we avoid it? What are the implications for psychology and for the human sciences in general?
http://www.kcl.ac.uk/artshums/depts/philosophy/modules/level7/7aan2067.aspx
Module code: 7AANM109
Credit level: 7
tbc
Teaching staff: Professor Bill Brewer
Module code: 7AAN2061
Credit level: 7
Credit value: 20
Semester:
Semester 1 (autumn)
Teaching pattern: one weekly one-hour lecture and one weekly one-hour seminar
Assessment:
coursework
Formative assessment: Two x 1,500-2,000-word essays, due by end of semester or as otherwise instructed
Summative assessment: One x two-hour end of year examination
The primary focus of this module will be issues in the metaphysics of mind: what is the relation between the bearers of mental and physical properties; what is the relation between mental and physical properties themselves; are various mental properties categorical or dispositional; do they supervene upon what is ‘internal’ to the subject? There will also be discussion of the nature and explanation of consciousness, the normativity of the mental, and the rational explanation of behaviour.
http://www.kcl.ac.uk/artshums/depts/philosophy/modules/level7/7aan2061.aspx
Module code: 7AANM108
Credit level: 7
The focus of this module is the concept of mental disorder as it has developed in modern psychiatry. The anti-psychiatry critiques of the 1960s and subsequent postmodern developments including social constructionism will be reviewed, and their relation to current biological approaches to psychopathology examined. Topics include: Foucault's critique of the modern development of the concept of mental disorder; cross cultural studies; Szasz on the myth of mental illness; feminism and psychiatry; social constructionism; facts and values in DSM and ICD; and disorder in an evolutionary-theoretic perspective.
ACADEMIC ENTRY REQUIREMENTS
General entry advice
Minimum 2:1 undergraduate honours degree (or overseas equivalent) in Philosophy, Psychology, Social Sciences, Medicine, Psychiatry, Nursing, or any other field. Conversion students should show evidence of an interest in and aptitude for the subject.
APPLYING TO KING'S
To apply for graduate study at King's you will need to complete our graduate online application form. Applying online makes applying easier and quicker for you, and means we can receive your application faster and more securely.
King's does not normally accept paper copies of the graduate application form as applications must be made online. However, if you are unable to access the online graduate application form, please contact the relevant admissions/School Office at King's for advice.
APPLICATION PROCEDURE
With your application form, you must include a sample of written work totalling approximately 3,000 words. We do not routinely interview applicants, but we may call you for interview; and you are very welcome to call the department to arrange a visit. We aim to process all applications within four to six weeks although this may take longer over holiday periods.
PERSONAL STATEMENT & SUPPORTING INFORMATION
You should use your personal statement to discuss your intentions for the programme, and the route that has led you to it.
FUNDING
British and EU nationals can apply for AHRC studentships and Graduate School and School of Humanities studentships and bursaries. Overseas research students can apply for Overseas Research Scholarships (ORS). The Department offers scholarships up to £10,000 annually: the Sorabji Graduate bursary, the Susan Stebbing bursary (for female students only) and the Peter Goldie bursary.
For further information, see the Departmental postgraduate Funding page:
http://www.kcl.ac.uk/artshums/depts/philosophy/study/funding/index.aspx
Related programme student profile
Eighteenth-Century Studies MAWhen I applied for a place on the Eighteenth-Century Studies MA, there were two main reasons why the course appealed to me. Firstly, as an English Literature graduate, the interdisciplinary nature of the MA - the course covers early modern British and European literature, history, science, medicine, politics, philosophy, art, and more - would both enable me to develop my specific interest in the relationship between the arts and sciences during this era, and make me a better scholar of the period in general. Similarly, because the course was taught by both tutors from King's College and curators from the British Museum, it offered a unique opportunity to be around and improve my understanding of all the incredible artefacts - not just texts, but objects too - whose creation, or re-discovery in many cases, resulted from this ferment of ideas called the Enlightenment.
On starting the MA, I found that the course was everything I'd wanted it to be. British Museum curators taught the core modules, and in effect the Museum's showcase Enlightenment Gallery, which displays and interprets objects as eighteenth-century people might have made sense of them, became a vast classroom. King's College tutors taught the optional modules, and many of these were themed - the self, the body, liberty, melancholy, and so on - and ranged across a variety of media - conduct books, novels, philosophical treatises, diaries, portraits and more - to demonstrate how a number of disciplines informed the emergence of each particular idea or experience. The MA organizers were also really good at showcasing eighteenth-century London - there were trips to Kew gardens and Sir John Soane's house museum, amongst others, which was an unexpected bonus.
Aside from the course, the facilities at King's are very good. Its beautiful library is a two minute walk away from its main Strand campus, it has a big and cheap student bar with a view of the river, and it's next door to the Courtauld Institute and just over the river from the British Film Insitute on the south bank, two of my favourite places in London.