MSc in Psychodynamic Developmental Neuroscience

Aims and Overview

This unique programme addresses a growing interest among both neuroscientists and developmental scholars in integrating ideas of social-emotional development with contemporary understanding of brain development and brain function.

The programme aims to give candidates an introduction to the relation between neuroscientific and psychodynamic approaches to developmental psychopathology. It will equip students with knowledge and understanding of both neuroscientific and psychodynamic concepts. The program aims to engender an ability to design psychodynamic research approaches using a range of neuroimaging and neurobiological techniques. The overarching educational aims of the programme therefore are:

  1. To provide a theoretical grounding in psychoanalytic theories of development
  2. To provide an introduction to a developmental approach to mental disorder based on both theoretical and empirical contributions
  3. To equip students with sufficient knowledge of neuroscience to understand findings from neuroimaging, neurobiology, and molecular genetics as these pertain to a psychodynamic approach to the development of behavioural and emotional problems in childhood and young adulthood
  4. To introduce students to qualitative and quantitative research methodologies and to the requirements for conducting reliable, valid and ethical research

The programme builds on the new collaborative relationship between University College London Subdepartment of Clinical Health Psychology and the Yale University School of Medicine (Yale Child Study Center) linked via the Anna Freud Centre in London which will act as host for the programme. The Yale Child Study Center brings great strength in clinical developmental neuroscience and the AFC programme at UCL corresponding strength in developmental psychoanalytic psychology. The program is offered by University College London in collaboration with Yale because of the unique position of these two institutions as international leaders in the field of psychoanalytic developmental psychology.