General aims

The course aims at providing the students with the general knowledge of the psychodynamic theories of mental functioning, personality growth and psychopathological processes. Through the presentation and discussion of clinical material the course also aims at providing the students with accurate methods and tools of assessment of personality and psychopathological conditions as well as with the more suitable planning of the clinical intervention.

Specific aims

Knowledge and understanding
In order to pass the exam, the student is asked to be able to analyze the main aspects of psycho-pathological functioning in the light of the theories presented as well as to vet the relative implications for the planning of the intervention that should be applied to the diverse clinical conditions and therapeutic relationship.

Applying knowledge and understanding
The use of the clinical theories will allow the student who has passed the exam to identify the key modes of psychopathological functioning with reference to neurotic, psychotic, perverse, processing of post-traumatic experiences, severe personality pathology. The student are also required to identify the aspects concerning transference and countertransference in the course of clinical exchanges.

Making judgments
The course prompts the student to identify the specific aspects of the various clinical conditions in which the psychodynamic point of view can afford an an enriched understanding of individual and relational psychic suffering and allow a more articulate analysis of the project of clinical intervention.

Communication skills
Passing the exam entails the mastery of the meaning of the key psychodynamic concepts, the capacity to formulate an assessment that can be shared with other professional of mental health establishing a dialogue with the other diagnostic attitudes. During the lectures attention will be drawn to the contribution that the clinical psychoanalytic point of view can bring to equipe discussions and the formulation of complex project of intervention in the diverse context of mental health.

Learning Skills
During both traditional lectures and the laboratory the student will be enabled to test the relevance of the diverse clinical psychoanalytic theories for the description of the processes of thought characterizing the diverse psychopathological conditions, to verify their usefulness for the final diagnosis and assessment, for the professional exchange with colleagues of the mental health equipe, in the planning and analysis of the process of clinical change. These skills will result useful for both their application to the various aspects of developmental psychopathology proposed by the other exams of the Course of Study and in the first clinical experiences carried out after the end of the Degree.