Back to Classes I teach

Back to home

 

J. MICHAEL RUSSELL, Ph.D., PSYCHOANALYST
PROFESSOR OF PHILOSOPHY AND HUMAN SERVICES

SYLLABUS FOR HUMAN SERVICES 480
CASE ANALYSIS

APPOINTMENTS and SCHEDULE

My Fall schedule, 2003, subject to change:

Monday & Wednesday 7:00 -- 8:15 a.m.  Philosophy 100, Intro to Philosophy, H 414

Monday 11--1:00 Philosophy Department events*

Monday & Wednesday 1:00-2:15, Philosophy 448, Death, Aging & Meaning, H 413

Tuesday & Thursday 10:00--11:15 Human Services 480, Case Analysis, EC 124

Tuesday 11:30--1:00 Office hours by appointment: H 311-B*

Wednesday 2:30—4:00 Office hours by appointment; H311B*

Wednesday 4:00--6:45 Human Services 490, Practicum in Group Leadership, EC 109

Thursdays, 11:30--1:00, Academic Senate*

Times marked with an asterisk (*) are good for an appointment, when not in conflict with some other meeting.  Advance appointments are very strongly encouraged.  Leave a message saying on when you plan on coming, and how I can reach you if I’m not available then.  Give me one or two days advance notice in case I can’t make your proposed time.

 

J. Michael Russell, Ph.D.
Professor of Philosophy and Human Services
jmrussell@fullerton.edu

http://jmichaelrussell.org

   (714) 278-2752
Humanities Building H 311 B Fax: (714) 278-1274
Cal State Fullerton
P.O. Box 6868, Fullerton CA 92634-6868



 Notice:
What follows is meant to give students some understanding of what to expect in this course, but specific features are subject to change and, therefore, this distribution is not offered nor intended as a binding contract.


TEXT:
Glen Gabbard, M.D., PSYCHODYNAMIC PSYCHIATRY IN CLINICAL PRACTICE: Third Edition  (American Psychiatric Press, 2000, isbn 1-58562-002-5)
Highly recommended: either DIAGNOSTIC AND STATISTICAL MANUAL IV (American Psychiatric Association) or DESK REFERENCE TO THE DIAGNOSTIC CRITERIA FROM DSM-IV  (You can get by without this. . Still ---- if you plan on going into the counseling field, you really will need to own one of these.)


COURSE OBJECTIVES:
The central purpose of this course is cultivate your capacity to understand counseling cases psychodynamically -- i.e., in terms of unconscious dynamics. This is a capacity that develops through ones lifetime, and it may take many years for you to come to where you can use these kinds of therapeutic tools with much confidence. What we are doing here is laying a foundation for your subsequent growth as a therapist. Related objectives include gaining some familiarity with various diagnostic vocabularies, including some exposure to the DSM-IV, and some practice in conceptualizing treatment approaches to cases in light of their psychodynamic analysis.
Course objectives include:

> Learn a psychoanalytic perspective for understanding human conflict in terms of psychosexual stages and phases of separation and individuation

> Learn to think about cases psychodynamically, i.e., in terms of unconscious contributions to conflict

> Learn to evaluate the appropriateness of insight oriented psychotherapy, supportive psychotherapy, and alternative approaches

> Begin to become familiar with the diagnostic vocabulary of the DSM-IV, particularly the affective disorders, anxiety disorders, adjustment disorders, personality disorders, gender identity disorders and paraphilias, and eating disorders

> Learn about making constructive use of countertransference responses for recognizing the transference

> Learn to identify Oedipal and pre-oedipal issues in relationship to current conflicts

This is a course which aims to enhance your familiarity with psychodynamically oriented counseling by providing tools for understanding particular cases. As I use the phrase, `Case analysis' basically means trying to understand what is going on with someone within psychodynamic language, so as to be able to make some intelligent decision about how to work (or not work) with this. It is assumed that you know the basic approaches to psychotherapy, such as are discussed in Human Services 380, Theories and Techniques of Counseling, and also assumed that you aspire to work in a human services or related field where you will be called upon to help others achieve some insight into their personal conflicts. It is assumed that most of you -- hopefully all -- will have previously experienced something like a supervised counseling situation -- a practicum or internship -- and also that you will have current access to some situation from which it would be possible for you to draw `case material' that could be presented in class as a basis for class discussion. This could be from an actual internship placement or some other situation where you take on the role of a counselor. (We will discuss in class the issues of informing your prospective `client' of your intention to present case material, confidentiality, safeguards, etc., in class.)
It is assumed you agree to treat with appropriate professionalism and respect the sensitive material you will be exposed to in class; you should also know that the class material is very likely to evoke strong emotional responses in you, so that you should be prepared to seek out therapeutic assistance on that account. More precisely, I intend to broaden your exploration into the foundations of human conflict ("the unconscious"); it probably will be a very long time before you will be able to very effectively and with comparative safety draw much from this in your counseling work, so this course will be charting out some foundations. Your own in-depth therapy will be supplementing this in years to come.

COURSE EXPECTATIONS
Your final grade in the course will depend not only on the specific grades on written work and examinations, but also my impression of your attentiveness, preparedness, and participation. I EXPECT REGULAR ATTENDANCE, AND MAY REDUCE YOUR FINAL GRADE by 1/2 a grade for every two unexcused ABSENCES or four excused absences. If you arrive after I have taken role it is your responsibility to inform me of this on that day. I will be strict about the University restrictions on grades of Incomplete. Policies regarding academic dishonesty will follow those stated in the University Catalog, pages 95-96.

GRADING:
As I use them, letter grades have the following significance: "D" is poor. "C" is adequate (which does not mean the same thing as "average"), "B" is good, and "A" is excellent. I tend to reserve A grades for students whose work is conspicuously better than work I think is good. Perhaps it is only fair to tell you that even though you may give your very best effort to this course, that does not mean that you are going to be conspicuously better than your classmates, who may be doing their best also. When I am satisfied that there is good reason for you to require a make-up examination, I will offer this. However, it is harder to establish that you do "A" work where you are not taking an exam under the same circumstances as your classmates and hence where it is not as easy to tell whether you "excel" in comparison with them.

READER:
All written work will be read and graded by my grader with my supervision and review.

ANTICIPATED REQUIREMENTS:
I am planning two examinations during the semester and a final examination. The mid-term will be for a whole class period, and the final will be for 1 hour 50 minutes. Each exam will be essays in which you will need to be able to clearly present ideas from lecture and text. In addition, everyone will be expected to make an oral presentation in class of a sample (mock) therapy session. The oral presentations will be explained in more detail in class. These are not graded, although they do contribute significantly to my overall subjective class impression of you, which does figure into your final grade. This report, however, is not so much for me to evaluate you as for the class to hear case material which we all can `brain-storm' so as to have opportunities to try out ideas from class and reading. The final examination is comprehensive, and, to a lesser extent, the mid-terms are comprehensive: this means that you are expected to be integrating everything you have studied in this course at any point where you are graded.

ANTICIPATED SCHEDULE:

Week 1: Introduction to the course. Overview of dynamically oriented psychotherapy. Basic Principles of dynamic psychotherapy. Read Gabbard, introductory materials and Chapter 1.  

Week 2: Psychoanalytic theories. Chapter 2.  

Week 3 Psychodynamic assessment. Chapter 3.  

Week 4. Approaches to treatment. Chapter 4.  


Week 5: Fairytales as applications. Review. Examination.


Week 6: DSM-IV Axis II, Paranoid, Schizoid, Schizotypal. Chapter 14. Class presentations in every class for the rest of the term.  


Week 7 Borderline Personality Disorder. Chapter 15.  


Week 8 Narcissistic and Antisocial Personality Disorders. Chapters 16 and 17.  


Week 9 : Hysterical and Histrionic Personality Disorders, Obsessive Compulsive, Avoidant, and Dependent. Chapters 18 and 19.  

Week 10: Exam on Tuesday,   Axis I. Schizophrenia and Affective Disorders. Chapters 7 and 8.  

Week 11: Anxiety Disorders and Dissociative Disorders. Chapters 9 and 10


Week 12: Paraphilias and Sexual Dysfunctions, Chapter 11, and paper by J. M. Russell, "Perversions, Eating Disorders, and Sex Roles"   

Week 13: Substance-Related Disorders and Eating Disorders, Chapter 12

Week 14: Dementia and Cognitive Disorders

Week 15: Wrap-up

Week 16: final examination