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Psychoanalytic studies (M16)

Join the UK’s first psychoanalytic studies course with deep roots in the British School of Psychoanalysis

Psychoanalytic studies
Duration
One or two years, part-time
Delivery
In-person
Qualification
Master’s
Location
London
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This is the UK’s first psychoanalytic studies course with strong links in the British School of Psychoanalysis and the Tavistock model of infant and young child observation. The emphasis of this creative course is on learning from experience. You will be encouraged to use your own emotional responses and cultural knowledge, as well as the learnt theory, to help make sense of the ideas that you will be studying.

The course has a proud history of welcoming students from around the world and from a wide range of professional and personal backgrounds. It particularly values the diversity of lived experience that all students bring, including those related to culture, ethnicity, gender, sexuality, disability, and other aspects of identity, recognising how these perspectives enrich the use of psychoanalysis as a tool for understanding human experience and culture in its many forms

Students can achieve a Postgraduate Diploma after one year, or undertake the full two years of study (including a dissertation in the second year) and graduate with a Master’s degree.

Please note: you may see the M16 course also referred to as PAMATP005 in communications from our application system.

Applications for this course are now closed for September 2025 entry. Please register your interest to be notified when applications open for 2026 entry.

About this course

Alongside the in-depth study of the origin and development of psychoanalytic concepts you will learn through observation and explore the application of psychoanalysis to aspects of contemporary culture and society, including to the culture of psychoanalysis itself.

The course consists of three strands:

  • observation
  • psychoanalytic theory
  • psychoanalytic theory as a mode of enquiry into culture and society

Observation

You will observe an infant or a young child at home or in a nursery setting and attend a small weekly seminar led by an experienced child psychotherapist. Infant observation allows for the detailed study of the unconscious processes that shape a baby or young child’s personality as they develop within the varied context of family or nursery relationships, and in the context of the different communities around each family.

It is an important aspect of an initial psychoanalytic education and provides a context in which psychoanalytic ideas become connected to human experience, engaging students’ emotions as well as minds.

Please note that it is your responsibility, and an important aspect of the module learning aims and objectives, to arrange this observation. You will be given guidance and support with this task during seminars and tutorials as needed.

Psychoanalytic theory

You will study the origin and development of fundamental concepts in psychoanalysis through Freud and Klein, as well as Bion, Winnicott, theoretical papers about sexuality and consider the theoretical developments of contemporary post-Kleinian thinkers.

Senior psychotherapists and analysts will use their clinical experience to bring psychoanalytic ideas and methods to life. The approach to learning is through the close study of the primary psychoanalytic texts and this will provide you with a substantial first-hand foundation for further psychoanalytic study and its broader applications.

Psychoanalytic theory as a mode of enquiry into culture and society

You will explore the application of psychoanalytic ideas to art, film, narratives of self, music and the social and political applications of psychoanalysis, as well as to your specific interests in these fields.

Alongside examination of how a psychoanalytic perspective can enrich our understanding of the cultural wealth in diversity and difference, the module will also encourage the application of contemporary and historical psychoanalytic concepts to better understand and engage with the challenges to inclusive, anti-discriminatory learning about human development, including those associated with the culture of psychoanalysis itself.

Young child observation

You will observe a pre-school child in their family or nursery setting to learn about the emotional meaning of a child’s behaviour as they start to relate to others outside the family.

Please note that it is your responsibility, and again, part of your learning task, to arrange this observation, but you will be given guidance and support as needed during seminars and in tutorials.

Dissertation

The aim of the dissertation (12,000 to 14,000 words) is to develop an application of psychoanalytic ideas and approaches to a subject of interest. Some students’ dissertations have been revised to become published articles and several former students have gone on to publish books.

Here are some titles of successfully completed dissertations:

  • The Maison Verte: a Transitional Space. An introduction to the work of Françoise Dolto
  • The Psychodynamics of an Émigré Family Business: Intergenerational Creativity and Survival
  • A Psychoanalytical Investigation into the Sense of Home in the Poetry of John Clare
  • Beguiling the Hours: Psychoanalytic Perspectives on Boredom
  • (Dis)integration in a Foreign Land: Psychoanalytic Explorations of Migration
  • O My Days! A Psychoanalytic Approach to the Language of British Young Offenders in the 21st Century
  • Peace and Terror: Psychoanalytic concepts of Psychosis and George Mitchell’s management of the Northern Ireland Peace Process
  • The Beginning of the End of an Affair? An Exploration of Psychoanalytic and Psychiatric Models of the Mind in Two Cases of Psychosis
  • The Death Instinct in the work of Ibsen (based on ‘Hedda Gabler’ and ‘The Master Builder’)
  • David Hockney: the Recovery of the Lost Loved Object

Modules

Module 1: Infant/Young Child Observations 1

Year One

  • FHEQ level 7
  • 20 credits
  • Core module
  • Module lead: Felicity Tyson

Module aims
The aims of the module are to:

  • help you learn directly from experience about human development and interactions and the deeper dynamics within your observational setting and the settings of other students in your seminar group, paying attention to cultural differences between the observer and the observed family, and exploring the impact of these differences on the observation and how it is experienced
  • develop your understanding of the psychoanalytic observational method through direct experience of observing an infant/young child and through seminar discussion
  • help you enhance your receptivity to the emotional development of infants/young children within a range of settings
  • enhance your capacity to describe in fine detail the behaviour and interactions of the baby (or young child) with the main carer and family members, including paying attention to the minutiae of facial expression, tone of voice and style of movement
  • enhance your skills and capacity as an observer of interactions in your chosen setting and to establish your role as observer within this setting, developing the capacity to remain attentive and to refrain from giving advice or actively intervening
  • equip you to make links between the use of the psychoanalytic observational method and other modules on the course

Module assessment
You must submit an infant observation portfolio, comprising three observations of 1,500 words each, with brief introductory and linking paragraphs of 750 words.

Module 2: Psychoanalytic Theory 1

  • Year one
  • FHEQ level 7
  • 20 credits
  • Core module
  • Module lead: Felicity Tyson

Module aims
The aims of the module are to:

  • gain a detailed, chronological knowledge of the key works of psychoanalytic literature from Freud (two terms) and Klein (one term)
  • give you opportunities for both didactic and experiential learning in relation to psychoanalytic theory
  • gain an in-depth knowledge of fundamental psychoanalytic concepts including their origin and development and their value for contemporary thinking, both clinical and theoretical
  • develop critical thinking skills in relation to the concepts under discussion
  • have the foundations to be able to trace the development of classical theory into the contemporary era
  • equip you with the critical and analytic skills necessary to understand and elaborate upon different perspectives within the field of psychoanalysis

Module assessment
You must submit a 3,500-word psychoanalytic theory paper, choosing from a selection of titles provided.

Module 3: Applications 1

  • Year one
  • FHEQ level 7
  • 20 credits
  • Core module
  • Module lead: Felicity Tyson

Module aims
The aims of the module are to:

  • develop a detailed knowledge of the field of psychoanalytic studies
  • develop an understanding of how psychoanalytic concepts can be applied to non-clinical settings
  • develop an understanding the relevance of theory to various applications of psychoanalysis.

Module assessment
You must submit a 3,500-word applications paper.

Module 4: Infant and Young Child Observation 2

  • Year two
  • FHEQ level 7
  • 20 credits
  • Core module
  • Module lead: Dexter Benjamin

Module Aims
The aims of the module are to build on the learning from your year one observation. You will:

  • continue to learn directly from experience about human development and interactions and the deeper dynamics within the student’s observational setting and the settings of other students in their seminar group
  • continue to develop understanding of the psychoanalytic observational method through direct experience of observing an infant/young child/institution and through seminar discussion
  • continue to enhance receptivity to the emotional development of infants/young children within a range of settings, taking into account issues of sameness and difference between observer and observed family, and developing the capacity to describe their importance and impact within the observational narrative
  • consolidate skills and capacities as an observer of interactions in the students chosen setting and of themselves in the role of observer
  • make links between the use of the psychoanalytic observational method and other modules on the course

Module Assessment
You must submit an infant observation paper of 3,500 words, plus ancillary material of up to 1,000 words.

Module 5: Psychoanalytic Theory 2

  • Year two
  • FHEQ level 7
  • 20 credits
  • Core module
  • Module lead: Dexter Benjamin

Module aims
The aims of this module are to:

  • be able to trace the development of classical theory into the contemporary era focusing on the developments within the British School of Psychoanalysis
  • be equipped with the critical and analytic skills necessary to understand and elaborate upon different perspectives within the field of psychoanalysis
  • understand the relevance of theory to various applications of psychoanalysis
  • be able to apply psychoanalytic theory to other modules on the course

Module assessment
Students are required to submit a 3500-word psychoanalytic theory paper, choosing from a selection of titles provided.

Module 6: Applications 2

  • Year two
  • FHEQ level 7
  • 20 credits
  • Core module
  • Module lead: Dexter Benjamin

Module aims
The aims of the module are to:

  • have acquired a detailed knowledge of the field of psychoanalytic studies.
  • develop an advanced understanding of how psychoanalytic concepts can be applied to non-clinical settings for example in music, poetry and autobiography
  • develop new approaches to psychoanalytic questions in an interdisciplinary framework i.e. to identify what social scientists and critical theorists might contribute to psychoanalytic discussion as well as what psychoanalysis might have to offer

Module assessment
You must submit a 3,500-word applications paper.

Module 7: Dissertation

  • Year three
  • FHEQ level 7
  • 60 credits
  • Core module
  • Module leads: Michael Rustin and Anshu Srivastava

Module aims
The aims of the module are to:

  • facilitate the production of a well written, well-structured and realistic formative assessment proposal on a subject of the student’s choice but which reflects learning from different parts of the course, which is used as a basis to write a dissertation of between 12,000 to 14,000 words
  • participate in the formulation of other students proposals (dissertation proposal seminars)
  • foster an advanced capacity for independent learning

Module assessment
You must submit a 14,000-word dissertation.

Who is this course for?

This is a rewarding course for anyone interested in learning about psychoanalytic ideas and their application to the arts, politics, and literature. You may do this course out of general interest, be considering future clinical training or already be a practising clinician who wants to inform your professional practice.

This course is a good option for those unsure about whether they would like to work with children or adults, before deciding to study on our Psychodynamic Psychotherapy or Child and Adolescent Psychoanalytic Psychotherapy courses.

We have welcomed students from a variety of backgrounds including law, medicine, the arts and journalism. Many have taken this course to gain a substantial and wide-ranging introduction to psychoanalysis and its applications.

Course details

To be eligible for this course you must have a degree or other qualification of equivalent level.

We also welcome your application if you do not have a standard educational background, or if you are currently engaged in, or wish to pursue, academic study rather than related professional work

Home

£9,220 per year (2025/26)

International

£18,440 per year (2025/26)

You will be charged course fees for each year of your course. If your course is longer than one year, the fees that you will be charged after the first year will be subject to an annual uplift, which is not normally expected to exceed 6% or the Consumer Price Index (as stated on 01 September of that academic year) if higher than 6%. At its discretion and in rare instances, the Trust may determine a figure greater than either, to reflect costs associated with the activity (e.g. assessment, teaching, administration etc.), which shall not exceed 10%. Please refer to our Terms and Conditions, and Student Fees & Refund Policy for further information.

Financial support may be available to help you fund your studies at the Tavistock and Portman NHS Foundation Trust.

Assessment

The course is assessed with the submission of written essays for each module. You will also submit, in the first year, a portfolio of observations for the infant observation module.

Please note: You can achieve a Postgraduate Diploma after one year, or undertake the full two years of study (including a dissertation in the second year) and graduate with a Master’s degree.

Attendance

Teaching for this course is delivered in-person at the Tavistock Centre, London. You will need to attend on Tuesdays from 2pm to 7.30pm (with a fortnightly 12.30pm start in the spring term) and Wednesdays from 3.45pm to 6.15pm.

Please note that you will also need to set aside between two and four hours each week for observation of an infant or young child, and the writing up of those observations, for the duration of the course. It is your responsibility to arrange this observation, but you will be given guidance and support with this task as needed during seminars and in tutorials.

Many graduates of this course have:

  • gone on to further clinical training as adult or child and adolescent psychoanalytic psychotherapists, or other psychological therapeutic trainings (about 60% follow this path) – including our Psychodynamic Psychotherapy or Child and adolescent psychoanalytic psychotherapy courses.
  • used the learning to develop their existing clinical profession, often as psychiatrists, clinical psychologists, counsellors
  • gone on to doctoral level research in related fields of psychoanalysis and its clinical and cultural applications

Why study with us?

This world-renowned course has been running for over 20 years and will equip you with an in-depth understanding of psychoanalytic theory and its potential applications to other fields.

It will enable you to make links between theory and your own experience of watching unconscious processes unfold by undertaking an observation of a baby or young child. Crucially, it will offer you the opportunity to think about how an understanding of emotional states can contribute to our understanding of culture and society.

You will also benefit from being taught by senior clinicians as well as academics who have developed particular interest in the applications of psychoanalysis to culture and society over a minimum of three seminars a week during term time (six seminars a week for full-time students). You will have the use of an extensive library which is used by all students and staff, and you can also join clinical seminars or workshops in a programme called ‘Psychoanalysis in practice’.

The emphasis of this creative course is on learning from experience, and you will be encouraged to use your own emotional responses, as well as theory, to help you make sense of the ideas that you will be studying. You will have a generous amount of time with your tutors, many of whom are practicing clinicians.

Testimonials

“This course has been the most intellectually nourishing course I’ve attended since I sat my finals.”
M16 student
2019
“I have not felt so mentally alive for years.”
M16 student
2019
“This course was a real journey. I think it changed all of our lives, not just mine.”
M16 student
2019

Course facilitators

Validations

University of Essex logo

This course is validated by the University of Essex.

Register your interest

Applications for this course are now closed for September 2025 entry. Please register your interest to be notified when applications open for 2026 entry.

Register your interest

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