Thinking about Curriculum: An Interdisciplinary Perspective

Abstract

Curriculum development can play a role in preparing future psychoanalysts to participate in ongoing dialogue with colleagues in neighboring disciplines. Curriculum design can be used to encourage an interdisciplinary perspective that helps candidates think about psychoanalytic knowledge in the context of what is known in other disciplines about the functioning of mind and brain. It is possible to teach these complex matters in a way that students find accessible and useful. Exemplars taken from the curriculum designed and taught at the Columbia University Center for Psychoanalytic Training and Research are presented, as are problems encountered with this curriculum and the lessons that have been learned.