Narrative Neuropsychology
“The self is an incredibly ingenious novelist.”—Richard Powers
Narrative neuropsychology explores notions of mind, memory, sensory perception, language, mind-body interactions, consciousness, and self through study of cases of the breakdown, hyperdevelopment, or recovery of mental function. In this course, we will draw on a mixture of neuropsychological case studies, scientific research papers, novels, and memoirs to investigate conditions such as agnosia, amnesia, synesthesia, aphasia, autism, and other alterations in consciousness that arise from brain damage or variations in brain development. “Narrative” refers to the narrative accounts of neurologists but also to the view of the human brain as primarily a storyteller. A third sense of the term “narrative” will be invoked in our reading of current fiction and memoirs that incorporate neuropsychological material. This course is designed for students interested in the intersections of science and art.
Psychology courses
- Babies, Birds and ’bots: An Introduction to Developmental Cognitive Science
- Child and Adolescent Development
- First-Year Studies: Child and Adolescent Development in North American and African Contexts: Opportunities and Inequalities
- Children’s Friendships
- Children’s Health in a Multicultural Context
- Children’s Literature: Developmental and Literary Perspectives
- Crossing Borders and Boundaries: The Social Psychology of Immigration
- Cultural Psychology of Development
- Environment, Race, and the Psychology of Place
- First-Year Studies: The Developing Child: Perspectives from Experience, Observation, and Theory
- Gender Research Seminar: Focus on Men and Masculinities
- Individualism and/or Diversity Reconsidered
- Introduction to the Theory of Social Representations
- Landscapes of Injustice: Psychology and Social Change
- Memory Research Seminar
- Mindfulness: Neuroscientific and Psychological Perspectives
- Narrative Neuropsychology
- Pathways of Development: Psychopathology and Other Challenges to the Developmental Process
- Personality Development
- Puzzling Over People: Social Reasoning in Childhood and Adolescence
- Social Thinking
- The Changing Self: Narratives of Personal Transformation
- The Empathic Attitude
- The Feeling Brain: The Biology and Psychology of Emotions
- Theories of Development
- Theories of the Creative Process
- The Psychology of Religious Experience
- The Synapse to Self: The Neuroscience of Self-Identity
- Trauma, Loss, and Resilience
Vera Wang '71 addresses Class of 2013; photos, videos, media clips available on Commencement site