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MHHS-M 420: THE CULTURE OF MENTAL ILLNESS: REPRESENTATIONS OF MENTAL ILLNESS IN LITERATURE AND FILM (3 credits)

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This course will consider how mental illness is represented in literature and film by exploring the following: Is there a relationship between the way we understand and perceive mental illness, and the way it is portrayed through pop culture? Have literary and film portrayals of mental illness aided our construction of how we think about mental illness today? How has our understanding of mental illness changed in the last century? We will consider the ways certain understandings of mental illness are constructed, represented and proliferated throughout culture. What are the different representational strategies, in particular the representation of the therapeutic encounter between doctor and patient?

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