course

Course Credit:  3

This course will examine storytelling as our most powerful means of understanding ourselves and the world around us. Literature becomes the lens through which to view the human mind and the scientific mechanisms by which it operates—focusing on how we, as individuals, may come to understand (or misunderstand) ourselves. Students will learn the basic premises of psychology through the way humankind has told stories through great works of literature. Led by primary texts, students study story as touchstone to explore our human nature, just as the science of psychology does, finding truth and meaning about ourselves through the fictional lives of others. Some specific psychological topics will include identity, memory, crisis, depression, psychopathology, healing, and resilience, covered through the lens of the great writers and storytellers that came before us, including many not often taught.