Lens on Mental Health: Diversity and Intersectional Approaches

3 credits · Undergraduate

From its incipience, mainstream psychotherapy is understood to have been developed for a particular kind of person: the Viennese bourgeoisie, YAVIS (young, attractive, verbal, intelligent, successful), WEIRD (western, educated, industrialized, rich, democratic), and recently, the white, middle- and upper-middle classes, and usually, women. This course provides an overview of these criticisms and shifts the gaze, evaluating the evidence for and against such views, and summarizing the best steps forward for the field. As such, it relies on the best available research and evidence-based mental health treatment, and an interdisciplinary approach, drawing from psychology and related disciplines (e.g. neuroscience, sociology, cultural studies).