Minding Culture
This course will introduce the students to the major controversies debated in the study of mental illness and culture. Two major debates in clinical psychology are highlighted: nature vs. nurture and the individual vs. society. The course is part of a series of seminars designed to explore the epistemological, theoretical, and methodological implications of our modern concept of mental illness. Psychological ideas shape in fundamental ways how we understand human "nature", motivation, development, and pathology. What do we mean when we say mental illness is "biological"? "psychological"?