The course provides an introduction to the central practice and research fields in psychology. We will examine research disciplines in psychology, survey personality theories and key currents in the psychodynamic approach, alongside contemporary currents. We will address the roles of defense mechanisms and become acquainted with the worlds of social psychology, physiological psychology, perception, learning, memory and developmental psychology.
We will study basic concepts in psychoanalytic theory relating to the psyche and to treatment, and examine the connection between them and the world of photography. We will substantialize our conceptual infrastructure for combining photography and work with photographs in emotional processes and psychological treatment. The structure of the course is based on theoretical and clinical texts dealing with psychological treatment and the relationship between the world of treatment and photography and visual art.
In this course, phototherapy will be introduced as a tool encouraging psychological growth and therapeutic change. We will address the relationship between photography and treatment, and examine how phototherapy can be implemented, in relation to the population, type of diagnosis, and goals and stages of the treatment. Among the subjects studied in the course are photography as a means of projection, the family photo album in therapy, transference and countertransference in the photography dialogue, photography as an expression of the components of the self, and more. We will study through discussion and analyzation of theoretical material and case studies, combined with exercises from the field of phototherapy.
The aim of the seminar is to form an initial encounter between the student and the place of treatment. The weekly sessions will include active observation, practice, and processing through phototherapy. Students will observe and gain practical experience with therapy work, as well as discuss and analyze its components and make initial contact with patients.
The course seeks to expose the student to the development of psychoanalytical thought with regards to giving psychological treatment. It is based on the analogy between the world of therapy and the world of photography and on what motivates one person to approach another – the photographer seeking to take a photo, the patient seeking something else. As the photographer can choose from a variety of lenses when shooting the other person, thus developed psychoanalytical thought throughout the 20th century: different perspectives were emphasized in the conceptualization of the works of the therapist and patient. The photographer has a personality of his or her own, different from the personality of another photographer; hence, the therapist also has unique personality, with varying tendencies from therapist to therapist with regards to activeness-passiveness, and depending on things like his or her culture of origin, etc. For example, Freud’s approach is different from that of the relational psychoanalytical school, which developed in the late 20th century. The goal of the course is for students to get to know their way around psychoanalytical theory, and study important landmarks in its development throughout the 20th century.
A workshop based on experimentation with the photographic material in relation to other materials and media. The work process in the workshop is composed of continuums, which will eventually lead to a complete process. Participating students will be exposed to photographers and artists dealing with therapeutic photography, and develop a personal language of their own. The practical exercises in class will be linked to personal and biographical themes through group and personal supervision.
The course aims to develop the students’ photographic dialogue with the family album, by addressing issues of personal identity and memory.
The use of video embodies a fascinating combination of arts. A video segment has the power to bring to life the still image, instill in it sound, text, movement and drama, and walk us through emotional lanes, between the exterior and interior, truth and fiction, covert and overt. In this course, students will study various therapy techniques with video (documentary, closed-circuit, performance, and more). The classes are based on experience and accompanied by theory.
The course will focus on outward and inward glancing, near and far. We will be employing photography as an instrument of emotional expression in the search for the personal glance and the story. We will experiment with photography with a variety of artistic measures such as writing, drawing, collage and sculpture, in attempt to deepen our emotional experience and personal expression. During the semester, we will become acquainted with photographers, whose work is relevant to the course, and keep a journal that will accompany the process and serve students for their final project.
As every language, photography has a unique grammar, which can be used to dismantle and reassemble reality, give meaning to the interior and the exterior, the covert and the overt worlds. The photographic grammar is simple, but can be used to form an entire world. Its various elements can be used to assemble “correct” and incredibly beautiful proverbs, but can also be used to undermine them and create instead original and revolutionary ones. The photographic language can be used to articulate love, pain, anxiety, lighter and beauty; to protest, be angry, provoke thought, question or prove. In this course we will pay attention to the components of photographic language by combining practice and theory, and try to find the middle path between the grammatical elements and our psyche.
The course seeks to examine the therapy setting as an interpersonal and intercultural encounter, and thus consolidate an approach that is photographically and therapeutically sensitive in general, and culturally sensitive in particular. The course will delve into aspects of closeness and distance, and examine, in theory and practice, terms and metaphors such as others, field of view, strangeness, the other and otherness, boundary, threshold and safe place. We will explore how these are represented in the work of artists and photographers, and how they can shed light on the practice of therapy and the relationship between therapist and patient, and between the photographer and the action of photography and the photographic object.