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Union Theological Seminary

Ph.D. in Psychiatry And Religion

Description of program: This program prepares students to teach at college, university and seminary levels, as well as to hold church positions. This degree may also be taken as part of a dual program with Blanton-Peale Graduate Institute of Religion and Health that prepares candidates for clinical practice. Students may explore pursuing other psychoanalytic or pastoral counseling training programs in conjunction with this work at Union. Candidates electing such clinical training must complete all the usual requirements at the Seminary, be admitted by and pay fees to both institutions, and can be allowed up to 10 points of credit toward UnionŐs Ph.D. for work at the clinical institution, but not for R credit. They may count only 10 points for R credit toward meeting degree requirements, earned only through seminary courses. The curriculum focuses on the interdisciplinary conversation between theories of depth psychology and religious categories (evil, suffering, religious experience, the nature of god-images, of incarnation, resurrection, etc.) including the practice of ministry (e.g. the role and kinds of guilt-making in preaching, the relation of KleinŐs idea of reparation and forgiveness, how the minister can deal with projections of the congregation and vice-versa, etc.). The courses are in 3 categories: Theoretical Foundations (human development, theories of depth psychology, depth psychology and theology); Pastoral Ministry (introductions to pastoral counseling, discerning vocation, ministry with alcoholics, addicts, with gays and lesbians, with persons with disabilities, community development and the unconscious organization of groups, psychology of prayer, of spiritual life, basic disease categories, etc.); Advanced Psychology (study of primary depth psychological and theological theorists on identity, anxiety, aggression, dreams, death and dying, notion of the self in different cultures, fantasy and religious experience, mysticism, feminism, splitting and healing, etc.).

The faculty: The faculty consists of 11 rotating lecturers and 1 full professor. A second full-time position will be the next faculty vacancy to be reviewed.

Admission requirements: Admission to the Ph.D. presupposes an M.Div. degree or theological study of 2 years as well as introductory work in depth psychology.

Program requirements: 2 languages; 40 points of courses taken in a 2-year residency of which 20 points may be taken for R credit; 4 comprehensive exams including an oral component for each one; 3 quarters of CPE or equivalent; a dissertation and an oral defense are the requirements for the Ph.D.

Duration of the program: 7 years except by special permission of the Dean.

Titles of recent dissertations: 1) The experience of emptiness in the process of self-transformation in Zen Buddhism; 2) Christianity and depth psychology as represented by Dogen Kigen.

Graduate placement: Graduates work as professors in seminaries; as clinicians in counseling centers; psychoanalytic institutes; and as teachers and pastors in churches.

Financial aid: Nearly all students admitted to the Ph.D. receive financial aid; and the lowest award covers tuition ($19,300). The tuition drops to $2,400 and to $1,200 when the residency requirement has been completed but some outstanding academic requirements remain (These amounts are applicable to the year 1999-2000).

Current number of students in coursework: Currently 13.

Contact person: Ann Belford Ulanov, M.Div., Ph.D., L.H.D.; Christiane Brooks, Johnson Professor of Psychiatry and Religion, Union Theological Seminary, 3041 Broadway, New York, NY 10027, 212-280-1380, fax 212-280-1539.

 

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