MODULE SPECIFICATION TEMPLATE
MODULE DETAILS
Module title
Module code
Credit value
Level
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appropriate level with an ‘X’
Mental Disorder and Anthropology
SS649
20
Level 4
Level 5
Level 6
Level 0 (for modules at foundation level)
X
Level 7
Level 8
Entry criteria for registration on this module
Pre-requisites
Normally level 5 credits in Applied Psychology or equivalent
Specify in terms of module codes or
equivalent
Co-requisite modules
Specify in terms of module codes or
equivalent
Module delivery
Mode of delivery
Taught
Other
X
Distance
Placement
Pattern of delivery
Weekly
X
Block
Other
Online
When module is delivered
Semester 1
Semester 2
X
Throughout year
Other
Brief description of module This twelve week module introduces students to theories and methods in
psychological, psychiatric and medical anthropology. It will explore core
content and/ or aims
topics, debates and research related to mental health, illness and
Overview (max 80 words)
recovery. Students will examine varied interpretations; and linkages
between professional and academic accounts of mental illness and
individuals’ experiences. This involves exploring cultural assumptions of
mental illness; their relation to religious institutions and cosmologies,
migration, modernity, neo-liberal globalisation; and assemblages of harm
inflicted by political, economic and institutional power on people’s lives.
Module team/ author/
Dr Nichola Khan
coordinator(s)
School
School of Applied Social Science
Site/ campus where
Falmer
delivered
Course(s) for which module is appropriate and status on that course
Course
Status
*Mandatory: a module that must be taken and passed;
Compulsory: a module that must be taken but may be compensated for if failed
Optional/mandatory: used in the Faculty of H&SS where a student has a choice of modules. Once chosen, the
module must be passed.
Optional/compulsory: used in the Faculty of H&SS where a student has a choice of modules. Once chosen, the
module must be taken but may be compensated for if failed.
BA (Hons) Applied Psychology and Criminology
Optional
BA (Hons) Applied Psychology and Sociology
Optional
Module descriptor template: updated Aug 2012
BA (Hons) Social Science
Optional
MODULE AIMS, ASSESSMENT AND SUPPORT
Aims
The aims of the module are:

Learning outcomes
Content
To illustrate a range of ways in which psychological
anthropologists theorise, research and explain mental health,
illness and suffering.
 To introduce critical perspectives which emphasise the
cultural, historical, political, economic and social contexts in
which knowledge about mental illness and suffering is
produced.
 To encourage students to develop in-depth knowledge of key
contemporary debates and topics in psychological
anthropology through close reading of academic texts.
 To develop students’ ability to evaluate contemporary modes
of academic criticism and debate in psychological
anthropology, and to apply these techniques to a particular
topic.
 To develop students ability to conduct a critical literature
review
On successful completion of the module the student will be able to:
1. Demonstrate understanding of a range of theoretical concepts and
methods deployed by psychological anthropologists to approach
issues of mental health, illness and suffering.
2. Critically examine and compare ways in which anthropologists
from different theoretical and epistemological perspectives
(psychological, psychiatric and medical) approach issues of mental
health, illness and suffering.
3. Synthesise the arguments and evidence advanced in topic-specific
psychological anthropological literature.
4. Apply insights from theory and research in psychological
anthropology to key topics.
A diverse range of theoretical and methodological approaches will be
explored in relation to the issues in psychological, psychiatric and
medical anthropology, incorporating the following topic areas:
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Learning support
Anthropological representations of culture: theory and methods
Culture, suffering and anthropology: conceptual frameworks
Culture and psychiatry: cultures of psychiatry
PTSD in war and peace
Culture and the DSM/Culture-bound syndromes
Beyond culture to the suffering subject: Languages of pain
Culture, depression and bipolar disorder
Globalisation, global mental health and the cultural encounter
Psychoanalysis and anthropology
Writing, recovery and self-making
A good range of library resources, up-to-date reading lists, suggested
websites, journals and online learning resources will be provided on
commencement of the module, via the module handbook and
studentcentral.
Indicative reading:
Bock, P. K. (1999). Rethinking Psychological Anthropology, 2nd Ed.
Module descriptor template: updated Aug 2012
New York: Waveland Press.
Lindholm, C. (2007). Culture and Identity: The History, Theory, and
Practice of Psychological Anthropology. Oneworld
Publications.
Benedict, R. (1934). ‘Anthropology and the Abnormal,’ pp. 262-283 of
An Anthropologist at Work; Writings of Ruth Benedict, edited
by M. Mead. New York: Avon Books.
Clifford, J. and Marcus, G. (1986). Writing Culture: The Poetics and
Politics of Ethnography. Berkeley, University of California
Press.
Das, V., Kleinman, A., Lock, M., Ramphele, M. and Reynolds, P.
(2002). Remaking a World: Violence, Social Suffering and
Recovery, Berkeley, CA: University of California Press.
Farmer, P., Kleinman, A., Kim, J., Basilico, M. (2013). Re-imagining
global health. Berkeley: University of California Press
Farmer, P. (2005). Pathologies of Power. Health, Human Rights and
the New War on the Poor. Berkeley: University of California
Press.
Fassin, D. and Rechtman, R. The Empire of Trauma. An Inquiry into
the Condition of Victimhood. Princeton: Princeton University
Press.
Kleinman, A. & Good, B. (1985). Culture and depression: studies in the
anthropology and cross-cultural psychiatry of affect and
disorder. Berkeley: University of California Press.
Kleinman, A. (1988). Rethinking Psychiatry. London: Simon and
Schuster.
Kleinman, A. (1988). The illness narratives: suffering, healing & the
human condition. New York: Basic Books.
Lurhmann, T. (2000). Of Two Minds: An Anthropologist Looks at
American Psychiatry. Knopf Doubleday Publishing.
Martin, E. (2007). Bipolar Expeditions: Mania and depression in
American Culture. Princeton: Princeton University Press.
Scheper-Hughes, N. (2001). Saints, Scholars, and Schizophrenics:
Mental Illness in Rural Ireland. Berkeley: University of
California Press.
Key Journals
Culture, Medicine and Psychiatry; Transcultural Psychiatry; Ethos
Ethnos; Medical Anthropology; Cultural Anthropology; Cultural
Psychology; Anthropology & Medicine; Journal of the Royal
Anthropological Institute; American Ethnologist; American
Anthropologist
Key websites
http://somatosphere.net/
Other resources
( Ethnographic Film series)Afflictions: Culture and Mental Illness in
Indonesia. Massachusets: Documentary Educational Resources.
Anthropology and Psychiatry film series. Dir. Robert Lemelson.
Module descriptor template: updated Aug 2012
Teaching and learning activities
Details of teaching and
learning activities
200 hours study time delivered through a minimum of 36 hours direct
teaching and timetabled workshop activities and 164 hours of selfdirected study outlined in the module handbook.
Allocation of study hours (indicative)
Study hours
Where 10 credits = 100 learning hours
SCHEDULED
This is an indication of the number of hours students can expect to
spend in scheduled teaching activities including lectures, seminars,
tutorials, project supervision, demonstrations, practical classes and
workshops, supervised time in workshops/ studios, fieldwork,
external visits, and work-based learning.
36
GUIDED INDEPENDENT
STUDY
All students are expected to undertake guided independent study
which includes wider reading/ practice, follow-up work, the
completion of assessment tasks, and revisions.
164
PLACEMENT
The placement is a specific type of learning away from the University
that is not work-based learning or a year abroad.
0
TOTAL STUDY HOURS
200
Assessment tasks
Details of assessment for
this module
One seen examination (LOs 1, 2) (50%)
2000 word coursework assignment (LOs 3, 4) (50%)
Types of assessment task1
% weighting
Indicative list of summative assessment tasks which lead to the award of credit or which are required for
progression.
(or indicate if
component is
pass/fail)
WRITTEN
Written exam
50%
COURSEWORK
2000 word critical literature review
50%
PRACTICAL
EXAMINATION INFORMATION
Area examination board
SASS Undergraduate
Refer to Faculty Office for guidance in completing the following sections
External examiners
Name
Position and institution
Date appointed
Date tenure
ends
Dr Ian Tucker
Senior Lecturer in Psychology,
University of East London
Sep 2012
Jun 2016
Dr Mark Coulson
Reader in Psychology,
Middlesex University
Sep 2013
Jun 2017
1 Set exercises, which assess the application of knowledge or analytical, problem-solving or evaluative skills, are included
under the type of assessment most appropriate to the particular task.
Module descriptor template: updated Aug 2012
QUALITY ASSURANCE
Date of first approval
June 2014
Only complete where this is not the
first version
Date of last revision
Only complete where this is not the
first version
Date of approval for this
version
July 2015
Version number
2
Modules replaced
Specify codes of modules for which
this is a replacement
Available as free-standing module?
Module descriptor template: updated Aug 2012
Yes
No
x