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In this installment of our Interviews with Alumni series, we speak to Andrea Menzalin about her time with us, and how psychoanalytic studies have given her foundations for the future.
What drew you to the course? If your background was not directly related to psychoanalysis, what made you become interested in the field?
Before undertaking MSc in Theoretical Psychoanalytic Studies at UCL, I studied BSc in Business Administration at the University of Bath. During my undergraduate studies, through subjects that were more oriented towards psychology, like psychology of marketing, consumers, organizations and even behavior in financial markets, I got interested in psychology, specifically in psychoanalytic theory that provided answers to certain questions in the business domain. I decided that I wanted to deepen my knowledge of psychoanalytic theory and chose to study the course at UCL, which was the best decision that I made.
What aspects of the course did you most appreciate or enjoy?
I loved that the course covered so many aspects of psychoanalysis, from its beginnings with Freud, towards later developments and applications to a wide range of subjects. I really enjoyed the quality of teaching, and the teachers were very interesting and professionals in their fields. I appreciated a lot that they shared with us examples from their clinical practice.
Your experience of the course Who do you think would benefit from the course, and what advice would you give students as they are starting?
I think people, be it students or employed, irrespective of background, who enjoy reading, analyzing, uncovering deeper meanings, working on themselves and passionate about a wide range of topics will benefit from this course. I think the course can help students understand what their interests are and in which direction they want to move. Even though it is only a theoretical course and not clinical, it gives a wide perspective.
How do you feel that the course helped shape your personal and professional trajectories?
The course was something that I really wanted to do and where I learned a lot. It helped me to understand what I want to do in life. When I was taking the course, I knew that psychoanalysis was something that I am going to pursue, even though at the time I was relatively young to undertake training in psychoanalysis. After the course, I moved back to Serbia, where I started working in the field of economy and business administration (and I am still doing it), but I also started my psychoanalytic training as well as undergraduate studies in Psychology. I am very happy that I am in the process of obtaining another degree as well as training and hopefully one day I can switch to this new career path. When looking back, I believe all these decisions followed the one when I decided to study MSc in Theoretical Psychoanalytic Studies at UCL.