Jan 04, 2025  
2021-2022 Caspersen School of Graduate Studies 
    
Catalog Navigation
  Catalog Home
  About the Caspersen School
  Academic Calendar
  Academic Policies
  Academic Integrity Policy
  Institutional Review Board
  Caspersen Admissions
  Costs
  Financial Assistance

  About the Programs
  Program Requirements
  Combined Degree and Special Programs

  Course Descriptions
  About Course Listings

  Administration
  Campus Map

  My Portfolio
HELP
2021-2022 Caspersen School of Graduate Studies
Add to Portfolio (opens a new window)

ARGS 820 - Tools of the Titans: Psychodynamic Myths

3 credits
While modern psychology and psychiatry assume familiarity with names like Oedipus, Orestes and Orpheus, neither terminology nor clinical descriptions provide the awareness, understanding, and insight that the ancient Greek stories themselves offer. Students examine foundational figures like the Olympians (Demeter, Zeus, Hera, Hermes, Athena, Apollo and Dionysus), as well as divinities and humans whose skills and labors form instructive patterns (Prometheus, Atlas, Heracles, Sisyphus, Daedalus and Pygmalion).  Students also explore concepts of “fate” (including potential medical manifestations) and “freedom” through the individual choices and family relationships that haunt the houses of Cadmus (Oedipus, Jocasta and Antigone) and Atreus (Agamemnon, Clytemnestra, Electra and Orestes) and motivate those engaged in or affected by the Trojan War (Odysseus, Penelope, Helen, Telemachus and Nausicaa).


Add to Portfolio (opens a new window)