Date sent:        Thu, 15 Feb 1996 12:05:33 +0000
To:               psych-couns@mailbase.ac.uk
From:             Robert Maxwell Young robert@rmy1.demon.co.uk>
Subject:          Distance Learning and other programmes at Sheffield
Send reply to:    psych-couns@mailbase.ac.uk
Mounted by Chris Evans C.Evans@sghms.ac.uk 16.ii.96, tweaked 8.vii.96

CENTRE FOR PSYCHOTHERAPEUTIC STUDIES UNIVERSITY OF SHEFFIELD

RESIDENTIAL AND DISTANCE LEARNING PROGRAMMES

The Centre for Psychotherapeutic Studies of the University of Sheffield is the largest and most multi-disciplinary institution of its kind. Bringing together clinical work and applied approaches with scholarly and empirical research, it is probably unique in providing in a single setting such a wide variety of approaches and disciplines concerned with the understanding and alleviation of mental distress.

CLINICAL TRAININGS

As a part of the Faculty of Medicine, the Centre maintains a strong commitment to clinical practice, training and innovation. It offers approved training courses in Psychoanalytic Psychotherapy, Group Psychotherapy, Clinical Hypnosis, Art Therapy and Psychosocial Interventions, as well as a selection of short courses on analytic and other therapeutic approaches.

ACADEMIC PROGRAMMES

The Centre has fostered an interdisciplinary team of researcher-teachers from psychiatry, psychotherapy, sociology, psychology, history of science, as well as literary, cultural and women's studies. Their work is devoted to a critical analysis of the theories and practices of psychiatry, psychotherapy and psychoanalysis and to the wider application of psychodynamic perspectives, in particular, to the analysis of social, political, ideological and cultural forms. These scholarly research interests are represented in the MA courses offered (full-time or part-time) by the Centre:

All of the above are also offered as two-year courses by DISTANCE LEARNING. There is also an MA iN ART AND PSYCHOTHERAPY (with eligibility for British Academy scholarships).

RESEARCH

The diversity of interests in the Centre promotes a widely-informed and reflexive stance among both staff and students, an approach which is aided by the weekly Centre research seminars where the work of staff and research students is presented and discussed, and by the fortnightly 'open' seminar which attracts distinguished visiting and local speakers and an audience of practitioners and academics from the rest of the University and the surrounding region. There are also regular conferences on a wide variety of themes. Recent ones have included 'Love in the Time of Psychoanalysis' and 'Memories of Abuse'. We are particularly proud of fostering both empirical and scholarly research in the same setting and in conducting ongoing dialogues among various research methodologies. Doctoral research thrives in this multi-dimensional atmosphere. DOCTORATES may also be undertaken and supervised BY DISTANCE LEARNING.

RESEARCH PROJECTS

Recent and ongoing research projects in the Centre include:
'Studies of Subjectivity in Psychoanalysis', 'Transference and Intersubjectivity', 'Outsider Art', 'Interpretation in Dynamic Psychotherapy', 'Power and Subjectivity in the Work of Foucault and Merleau-Ponty', 'Governance in Psychoanalysis and Psychotherapy', 'Therapeutic Supervision', 'Image and Metaphor in Psychotherapy', 'Critiques and Defences of Humanism', 'Is "Perversion" Obsolete?', 'The Cultural Theory of Frederic Jameson', 'Mirrors and the Sense of Self', 'Asperger's Syndrome', 'Psychosocial Aspects of Long-term HIV Positive Patients', 'Art Therapy and Psychosis, 'History of Disability', 'Psychoanalysis and/of the Internet' and 'The Sociology of Psychiatry'.

Books include:
The Politics of Subjectivity: between Foucault and Merleau-Ponty, Intersubjectivity: The Fabric of Social Becoming, Whatever Happened to Human Nature?, Mental Space. External funding for empirical research has been forthcoming from the European Union and the NHS. The Centre has excellent connections for teaching and collaborative research with other institutions, for example, in Trieste and Sofia, and with other departments in the University, including Philosophy, Sociology, English, Education and Russian (Bakhtin Centre).

The Centre is also actively involved with the Internet. Members of staff moderate four email forums:

and edit learned journals with web sites: Psychoanalytic Studies and Free Associations.

ARTS & MEDIA

Members of staff frequently have an input to local radio and TV including chat shows and phone-ins as a mark of their commitment to the local community and to the dissemination of knowledge and information with regard to mental health. Part of the Centre's philosophy is not only to identify and adumbrate the social responses to mental health, but also to try to engage the wider public with the hope of changing people's perceptions of marginalised social groups including those labelled as mentally ill or disabled. To this end, the Centre has hosted conferences and exhibition including the visual arts as well as projects involving the performing arts and media. For example, the Centre has produced an arts festival 'Out of Sight, Out of Mind' involving a brand new play at the Crucible Theatre, a book launch, an exhibition of pictures from the Bethlem Royal Hospital Collection at the Mappin Art Gallery, a piano recital, film season and lecture programme.

FUNDING

The University of Sheffield offers a range of scholarships and bursaries to support students for both full-time and part-time study and research, and the Centre offers advice and support for those seeking grants from other sources.

LOCATION

The Centre is located in three large, renovated Victorian houses, near two large teaching hospitals and within walking distance of the centre of Sheffield. All teaching takes place in the Centre in newly-furnished lecture and seminar rooms, equipped with excellent facilities. There is also a Centre library and computer facilities on site and at the University Computing Centre. There are patient interview rooms, a well-equipped art studio and student common rooms and study rooms. There is a large, lovely private garden at the back of the Centre.

STAFF