Curriculum for the Master's Programme

Course contents:
Basic genetics (Mendelian laws), research methods (family and twin studies), genetics of mental disorders (depression, schizophrenia, anxiety disorders). Normal and abnormal amitosis (mitosis, meiosis, non-disjunction), auto- and heterosomal polysomes (trisomy 21, triplo-x, Sandberg, etc.), the basics of molecular biology (DNA, mRNA, tRNA), methods of genetic engineering (DNA cloning and sequencing), epigenetics (methylation, memory architecture, prions). Molecular biology of learning (Kandel - regulation of synapse growth).

Course aim:
To examine the current state of knowledge from a paradigm-based historical perspective. To impart knowledge about the basic concepts and models of genetics and molecular biology. To convey a realistic assessment of the hereditary transmission of psychopathological symptoms.

Course contents:
Definition of the term psychosis, specification and differential diagnostics based on ICD-10, selected concepts of psychotherapeutic schools regarding the development of the illness, neurobiology and pharmacological approaches, the phenomenon of co-dependency, concepts of social work as a focus in addiction treatment, concepts of intra-professional networking, treatment concepts from low-threshold to abstinence-oriented therapy.

Course aim:
Enough basic understanding of psychopathology to comprehend clinical diagnostics, especially in relation to the phenomena of addiction, delimiting the concepts of addiction, abuse, dependence and their differential diagnostics, recognition of multi-professional networking opportunities.

Contents:
In this course, the relationship between diagnosis and the description of mental disorders with social and value-dependent ramifications will be discussed. The pragmatic goal is to improve the students' skills with regard to linking the need for an action-regulating necessity to record psycho-spiritual states with the requirement to avoid reifying the same. This will be discussed both in a historical context and the context of available analyses of current socio-cultural factors.

Course contents:
The classification of mental disorders using the ICD-10 will be the main focus of this course. Possibilities and limits of the application of this code system will be discussed, with special emphasis on its importance for research. The course will enable students to apply the code system both in the context of their practical work and when writing reports and term papers.

Course aim:
Subject-based and methodological skills: Development of a satisfactory contextual and systematic understanding of the ICD, DSM, and psychotherapeutic diagnostics as well as a theoretical understanding of these three systems and their concrete, practical application for every patient. Key skills, social skills and personal competencies: In addition to the subject-based knowledge and skills, students must be able to apply these diagnostic systems in each individual case. This requires a honing of objectifying skills and basic psychiatric knowledge as well as empathy/perspective taking (sympathy and empathy), people skills, critical awareness, perceptiveness, self-discipline, and intercultural competence. Knowing and observing the criteria of diagnostics and developing interview techniques.

Final goal:
Students can apply both ICD-10 and psychotherapeutic diagnostics to the extent that they can further develop their knowledge and skills independently with the help of supervisors and intervision.

c.f. Pathology I

The aim of these courses is to deepen the students' knowledge about applications and limitations of qualitative methods. These methods, derived mainly from the social sciences, have been used successfully in psychotherapeutic process research for the past ten years.

Topics:
Observation, qualitative experiments, dialogical hermeneutics, objective hermeneutics, narrative interviews.

Course contents:
Starting with the gap between the psychotherapeutic profession and quantitative psychotherapy research, the specifics of psychotherapy science will be discussed as a discipline that uses scientific and humanistic methods and at the same time has to take into account that the professional activity it examines utilizes not only "techniques" but also life experience, intuition, artistic elements and elements of self-awareness (educational therapy or training analysis). From this perspective, qualitative research is characterized as a trend that has evolved from a discomfort with the reductionism of mechanism-based methods and has to be understood as an approach that does not just "tell", but also wants to "understand". Subsequently, the main methods of qualitative research will be outlined, and - taking into account the specific situation of students who work with patients - special attention will be paid to case study and qualitative interviews. In addition, the possibility of historical research in the field of psychotherapy science will be discussed, using the example of the melancholy discourse, though it has to be pointed out that "historical research" is only worthy of the name if it does not limit itself to conferring current ideas and concepts upon the past in naive "epistemological egocentrism" (cf. Piaget). Based on selected texts on qualitative research, the possibilities but also problems arising from qualitative research will be addressed.

Course aim:
Subject-based and methodological skills: After successful completion of the course, the students will have acquired basic knowledge of qualitative research and will be able to critically assess quantitative approaches with regard to their possibilities and limitations in conjunction with the specificity of psychotherapeutic work. Key skills, social skills and personal competencies: The basic ability to assess the value of qualitative research using the course curriculum and to carry out qualitative research independently with the help of specialist literature.

Final goal:
The specificity of qualitative research and its significance for psychotherapy science should be internalized.

Course contents:
Modifications of psychoanalytic techniques for the treatment of psychosis, borderline disorders, addictions and perversions. Students will learn to understand the nature of these modifications and use them in internship and practice. Finally, the various settings and forms of the clinical application of the psychoanalytic method: classic high-frequency analysis while lying down, low- and high frequency work face to face, short term psychoanalytic therapy, psychoanalytic focal therapy, psychoanalytic crisis intervention, group analysis, child and adolescent therapies. The final part of the course will deal with the special psychoanalytic technique for the treatment of somatoform disorders. With regards to method, the lecture will be complemented by student presentations about literature and practice protocols.

Psychoanalytic treatment situations presented by the students will be handled in the context of indication and contraindication. Various aspects of the evaluation of the potential of patient and analyst in the application of the psychoanalytic process will be presented. Students will acquire the evaluation criteria to assess the possibilities and limits of the applicability of this psychoanalytic method and their own therapeutic personality in a specific work situation.

In this supervised seminar, students will present cases from their practical psychotherapeutic work. This serves to process the countertransference and provides quality control for the psychoanalytic work. The students will learn to use the group supervision as an instrument of support for their work and to incorporate the group dynamics in their reflections.

c.f. Case Report Methodology

Learning Outcomes:

Contents:

Learning Outcomes:

Contents:

This course is designed as a practical exercise in the outpatient clinic of the SFU and serves to acquire practical psychotherapeutic skills in the course-appointed therapeutic method and to gain experience in dealing with both persons with behavioral problems and afflicted persons under professional supervision of the resident educational therapists.

The aim of this course is to teach students how to do autonomous psychotherapeutic work using the course-appointed therapeutic method. In private practice or in an institution, the student will perform psychotherapeutic treatments that will be recorded and supervised in the case report seminars at the SFU.