Minds and Madness (HPSC30019)
Undergraduate level 3Points: 12.5Dual-Delivery (Parkville)
From 2023 most subjects will be taught on campus only with flexible options limited to a select number of postgraduate programs and individual subjects.
To learn more, visit COVID-19 course and subject delivery.
Overview
Availability | Semester 2 - Dual-Delivery |
---|---|
Fees | Look up fees |
Madness, insanity, lunacy, losing one’s mind, nervous breakdown, psychosis, neurosis; some of the myriad terms that have been used to describe what happens when a person is deemed to no longer have control over word, thought or deed. It is one of the most baffling of phenomena and has been for millennia.
“Minds and Madness” explores the terms using lenses provided by history and philosophy. We focus on a number of inter-related questions:
- whether mental illnesses are natural kinds (i.e. are they real and if so what is the nature of their reality)?
- how have underlying theories of cause and pathology created specific therapeutic measures?
- and what has been the relationship between the psych-sciences and power (focusing upon patients, practitioners, and the intersections of ethnicity, class and gender)?
A flavour of the subject is captured by the people, events and therapies we explore: Burton, Descartes and Locke; asylums, mental hospitals and therapeutic communities; psychosurgery, electro-convulsive therapy, psychoanalysis, anti-psychiatry and psychopharmacology; the major contemporary disease-categories (schizophrenia, bi-polar &c.) and disease-categories that have morphed or disappeared (fugue, melancholia, hysteria). We explore the history of classification systems (e.g. the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual) and the different disciplines that have produced them (psychiatry, psychology and neurology). By the end of the subject students should have a profound understanding of the nature of the psych-sciences and the people and conditions they have sought to understand and treat.
“Minds and Madness” is a blended-learning subject. Lectures are provided online as weekly modules. They combine text, images, links, video and extensive bibliographies. Students are asked to explore these, addressing the questions raised in the modules. They also attend a two-hour workshop where the major issues are explored, while ideas and assessments are workshopped. It is a subject that will appeal to anyone who has an interest in psychiatry, psychology, the neurosciences, and history and philosophy more generally.
Intended learning outcomes
Students undertaking this subject will:
- demonstrate a broad knowledge of the history and historiography of minds and madness
- synthesise, analyse and assess arguments about minds and madness, and contextualise these arguments within the broader realms of science, history and philosophy
- create effective arguments, backed up by convincing evidence, about the historical dynamics of minds and madness and medicine, and be able to express these to experts and interested non-experts alike
- develop high-level research skills, including the ability to extend your knowledge-base beyond subject materials, combining traditional library- and archive-based research with digital research
- develop effective communication and presentation skills (written and oral), and the ability to collaborate constructively within the classroom
- demonstrate ethical integrity in written work and classroom activities, including a deep ethical engagement with issues around mental health and illness
Last updated: 14 March 2025
Eligibility and requirements
Prerequisites
None
Corequisites
None
Non-allowed subjects
None
Inherent requirements (core participation requirements)
The University of Melbourne is committed to providing students with reasonable adjustments to assessment and participation under the Disability Standards for Education (2005), and the Assessment and Results Policy (MPF1326). Students are expected to meet the core participation requirements for their course. These can be viewed under Entry and Participation Requirements for the course outlines in the Handbook.
Further details on how to seek academic adjustments can be found on the Student Equity and Disability Support website: http://services.unimelb.edu.au/student-equity/home
Last updated: 14 March 2025
Assessment
Semester 2
Description | Timing | Percentage |
---|---|---|
Short Essay
| Week 5 | 25% |
Report
| Week 10 | 37.5% |
Critical Reflection
| During the examination period | 37.5% |
Hurdle requirement: This subject has an attendance hurdle requirement of 75% seminar attendance (9 out of 12 seminars) | During the teaching period | 0% |
Additional details
All assessment must be submitted to pass this subject. Assessment submitted late without an approved extension will be penalised at 10% per day. After five working days late assessment will not be marked.
Last updated: 14 March 2025
Dates & times
- Semester 2
Principal coordinator Paul Carter Mode of delivery Dual-Delivery (Parkville) Contact hours 22 hours - 1 x 2-hour workshop per week from week 2 - week 12 and 1 x online lecture module per week (equivalent to 1-hour lecture) Total time commitment 170 hours Teaching period 25 July 2022 to 23 October 2022 Last self-enrol date 5 August 2022 Census date 31 August 2022 Last date to withdraw without fail 23 September 2022 Assessment period ends 18 November 2022 Semester 2 contact information
Email: carterpd@unimelb.edu.au
Time commitment details
170 hours
Last updated: 14 March 2025
Further information
- Texts
Prescribed texts
Madness in Civilization: From the Bible to Freud, from the Madhouse to Modern Medicine (A. Scull), Thames and Hudson 2015
Recommended texts and other resources
The vast majority of textual resources will be available through the libraries online databases, free google eBooks, and free eBooks on archive.org. These will be supplemented by other online sites, including vision, sound and images from the Wellcome's large collection.
- Related Handbook entries
- Breadth options
This subject is available as breadth in the following courses:
- Bachelor of Biomedicine
- Bachelor of Commerce
- Bachelor of Design
- Bachelor of Environments
- Bachelor of Fine Arts (Acting)
- Bachelor of Fine Arts (Animation)
- Bachelor of Fine Arts (Dance)
- Bachelor of Fine Arts (Film and Television)
- Bachelor of Fine Arts (Music Theatre)
- Bachelor of Fine Arts (Production)
- Bachelor of Fine Arts (Screenwriting)
- Bachelor of Fine Arts (Theatre)
- Bachelor of Fine Arts (Visual Art)
- Bachelor of Music
- Bachelor of Science
- Links to additional information
- Available through the Community Access Program
About the Community Access Program (CAP)
This subject is available through the Community Access Program (also called Single Subject Studies) which allows you to enrol in single subjects offered by the University of Melbourne, without the commitment required to complete a whole degree.
Please note Single Subject Studies via Community Access Program is not available to student visa holders or applicants
Entry requirements including prerequisites may apply. Please refer to the CAP applications page for further information.
- Available to Study Abroad and/or Study Exchange Students
Last updated: 14 March 2025