PhD Psychology

In keeping with the philosophy and central concerns for which the School of Human Studies stands, the doctoral programme in Psychosocial Studies too is guided by a vision. Its method is to retain ethical engagement with forms of life and cultural modes of being that are rendered invisible and voiceless by the dominant discourses and politico-social structures and processes. Moreover, a psychosocial framework of research is facilitated by a concern about relating to nuances of human subjectivity and an attempt to feel the psychic recesses, dilemmas, resilience, life choices and conflicts in the participant’s inner world. Guided by a critical perspective that constantly seeks to question both knowledge and power--questioning given structures within the discipline of psychology as also outside, historicizing/sociologizing knowledge, and orienting towards an inter-subjective world view within which affects, feelings and the phenomenological flow of life are received—the programme seeks to generate in the participants a nuanced sensibility to facilitate their clinical-critical, participatory and dialogical work.

In such research, the self of the researcher serves as an instrument through which processes of interpretation and meaning making are filtered, even as the momentum of work oscillates between recognition of self-reflexive moments (in the researcher and to an extent in also the participant) in which awareness of “sameness and otherness” leads to a deepening and broadening of human relatedness. Research in this mode welcomes the possible avenues through which the unknown (often preserved as the ‘excess’ and the ‘initially incomprehensible’ in the data) gradually unfolds in significance within the relational space between the researcher and the researched.

Serving life and its struggles, and focusing on qualitative work wherein sustained engagement is valued and the transformative potentials in the self of the researcher and researched are opened up, the doctoral programme will acquaint students with thinkers and researchers whose efforts are in line with the above objectives. It will also help to hone the skills of future practitioners to ask searching questions in clinical and cultural domains.

The aims of the programme are as follows:

To contribute to the rich and developing field of Psychosocial Studies through interdisciplinary research and writing.
To develop into writing from India and South Asia for developing psychosocial research.
To develop links between psychoanalysis and critical thinking relevant to India.
To develop links between clinical psychoanalysis and critical psychology.
To research marginalized lives and unexplored spaces of lived experience.
To use qualitative methods of enquiry that reclaim subjectivity along with critical textual analysis
To explore forms of listening to self and others.
To develop writing styles that foreground the intersubjective nature of psychosocial enquiry.

Nature of programme: Interdisciplinary (drawing from psychoanalysis, clinical psychology, psychohistory, disability studies, sociology, political thought, anthropology, literature, cinema, arts and aesthetics, history and philosophy)

Every candidate would have to successfully complete at least five, 4-credit courses (i.e. 20 credits in all). A candidate must earn minimum Grade Point Average (GPA) of B to fulfill the course work requirements.

Those candidates with an MPhil degree are normally exempted from course work but may be required to do courses where the MPhil courses do not connect to the nature and aims of the Psychosocial doctoral programme. The course work is normally of two semesters’ duration.

Each doctoral scholar isassigneda supervisor and a Research Advisory Committee (RAC). After course work, there will be six-monthly evaluations of progress in RAC meetings and presentations before the programme team.

Each scholar needs to publish a paper in a refereed journal and make presentations at two national or international conferences.

For more details, research regulations for all PhD programmes of AUD may be read at: (insert link)

Total Credits: 20 credits for taught courses and PhD thesis.

The total pool of courses on offer for PhD Psychology (Psycho-Social Studies) is the following:

Reading Texts: A Methodological Focus (4 Credits)
Culture, Subjectivity and Psychoanalysis: The Politics of (Secret) Selves in Colonial India (4 Credits)
Critical Cultural Psychology (4 Credits)
Subjectivity, Life history and the Psyche: Researching into the world of survivors (4 credits).
On Mutuality in Research Thinking (4 credits)
An allied course from Anthropology, Sociology, Gender Studies, Literature, Film Studies, History, Philosophy or any other Discipline which meets the research interests of the candidate (4credits)
Guided Reading Course
Pro Seminar

At the end of the program research scholars should be able to:

Demonstrate the capacity to read, analyze and apply theoretical texts.

Research scholars are expected to display an analytic understanding of the crucial dimensions of Indian society and to critically evaluate existing bodies of psychological thought for their relevance to these

Design and take to successful completion a research located in psychosocial studies.
Produce knowledge that cuts across the divisions between disciplines.
Develop new bodies of psychological knowledge that are relevant to India.
Evaluate ongoing research and policy connected to their fields.
Publish articles in scholarly journals and books.