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Matthew Mellor describes his experience of the course and shares his dissertation "Making Worlds in a Waking Dream: Where Bion Intersects Others on the Shaping and Breaking of Psychic Reality"
What drew you to the course?
Having initially become interested in psychoanalysis when studying for an MA in English Literature at Glasgow University, in 2011 and when in my final year of that undergraduate degree, I chose to write a dissertation on psychoanalytic interpretations of Samuel Beckett's work. This represented my first significant exploration of psychoanalytic theory and compelled me to apply to UCL's Theoretical Psychoanalysis MSc, on which I enrolled in 2013.
What aspects of the course did you most appreciate and/or enjoy?
UCL's course was both rigorous and exciting in its depth and approach, offering comprehensive teaching on everything from Sigmund Freud's earliest writings, to cutting-edge contemporary developments. The encouragement of inter-disciplinary perspectives, as well as learning from some of the most prominent figures within British psychoanalysis, were particularly stimulating aspects of the overall UCL experience.
What was your overall experience of the course? In hindsight, how do you understand your journey through it?
My personal journey through the course was challenging and enriching, with a rapid and extensive exposure to the psychoanalytic world greatly expanding the conceptual horizon in which I felt able to play. The experience also compelled me to pursue the clinical work and training that I have been focused on since leaving UCL.
What have you gone on to do in the time since you finished the course?
Upon graduating, I worked for Mind in Camden for a period of time, before being accepted onto Oxford University's PGCert in Psychodynamic Counselling. Having completed this course, I moved to the Tavistock and Portman NHS Foundation Trust where I am currently enrolled on the D58 clinical training. The clinical work that I've carried out in association with this training has been at Central and North West London NHS Foundation Trust, within Kensington & Chelsea's Psychotherapy Service. It is here where I am currently contracted as an Honorary Psychotherapist.
By way of extra-curricular interests. I am a current member of the London Neuropsychoanalytic Society's Steering Committee, supporting work at the interface of psychoanalysis and the neurosciences. It is at this inter-disciplinary juncture that I hope to continue to work; in this respect, a largely re-configured version of the dissertation that I first produced at UCL entitled Making Worlds in a Waking Dream: Where Bion Intersects Others on the Shaping and Breaking of Psychic Reality, has recently been accepted for publication in Frontiers in Psychology. In addition, I continue to contribute as an usher at UCL's annual psychoanalytic conferences and am closely involved with organising psychoanalytic film screenings for the psychiatric trainees completing their training within the NHS Foundation Trust at which I work.