Macalester Moodle

What is “madness”? Can the concept of mental illness be a valid one? What assumptions underlie attempts to classify mental disorders? And can we be justified in compelling people to submit to psychiatric treatment?

In this course we will examine these and other questions raised by mental disorder and our attempts to understand and treat it. We will also address ethical issues like the social implications of clinical categories, the proper aims of clinical discourse and practice, and the prospects of alternative models (besides the medical model) for conceptualizing mental “dysfunctions.”

The Middle East has often been portrayed as a stronghold of entrenched authoritarian leadership and a nexus for intense ethnic and religious conflict, including political violence. This course seeks to dissect the underlying reasons for the endurance of such perceptions and to investigate the motivations that have propelled citizens throughout the region to challenge and attempt to dismantle autocratic regimes. It probes the extent to which colonial legacies have contributed to and sustained these political quandaries. Furthermore, the course interrogates the ascendancy of Islamist movements in numerous Middle Eastern nations and examines the causes behind the surge in sectarian conflict. The course is crafted to provide a nuanced understanding of Middle Eastern politics, blending in-depth analysis of essential questions with a comprehensive examination of particular events and patterns across different countries within the region. The course addresses themes such as the endurance of authoritarianism, the dynamics of Political Islam, the patterns of sectarian conflict, the trajectory of economic growth and stagnation, as well as the catalysts and underpinnings of the Arab Spring(s) and Israeli-Palestinian conflict.