School Of PsychologyTheorising OthernessWestern Sydney University Unit Code: 53069.1
Discipline: PSYCHOLOGY
Student Contribution Band: 1
Level: 4
Credit Points: 10
About this Unit
This unit examines the construction and regulation of 'otherness' from a critical psychological perspective, drawing on the knowledge developed in previous studies. Social psychological, psychoanalytic, and postmodern theories of otherness are critically examined, from the point of view of both discursive representation and materiality. The meaning of 'otherness', and, as a consequence, of normality, are explored, at both an individual and social/cultural level, focusing specifically on the examples of madness, sexuality, and race or ethnicity. This includes an examination of women and madness; representations of madness in science, art and popular culture; the regulation of the mad in psychology and psychiatry; madness and embodiment; meanings of femininity and masculinity; performing sex and sexuality; constructing sexual identity; resisting regulation as other (gay, lesbian and queer psychology); transgender experience; and race and otherness in holocaust studies, black film studies, and in the Australian context.