AION 101 Course Evaluation Page

Course Description

This class includes two two-hour sessions incorporating an overview of some of the more important philosophical, cultural, and scientific contexts leading the development of psychodynamic psychology.  Content will include a review of the following philosophical and cultural foundations: ancient systems of spirituality, classical Greek philosophical models such as stoicism, skepticism, and hedonism, as well as neo-platonism, Gnosticism, empiricism, humanism, phenomenology, critical theory, and Zen Buddhism.

Curricular Notes

Ontological and epistemological grounding

AION 101 establishes the philosophical soil from which psychodynamic theory grows. Rather than treating psychotherapy as a technical discipline detached from its intellectual roots, this course makes explicit the metaphysical, ethical, and cultural assumptions embedded in all clinical work. By surveying traditions ranging from Greek philosophy and empiricism to phenomenology, critical theory, and Zen Buddhism, the course destabilizes premature theoretical certainty and cultivates reflective awareness of worldview. Developmentally, this course moves participants from unexamined clinical inheritance to self-aware theoretical orientation. It prepares clinicians to recognize that every intervention implies a philosophy of mind, suffering, and change.

Open Evaluation
1. Describe major philosophical and cultural traditions—including ancient spiritual systems, classical Greek philosophy, empiricism, phenomenology, critical theory, and Zen—and explain how these traditions shaped foundational assumptions about mind, self, suffering, and change within psychodynamic psychology.
2. Differentiate contrasting philosophical orientations to human experience (e.g., rationalist, phenomenological, spiritual, and critical perspectives) and identify how these differences implicitly inform clinical stance, therapeutic authority, and models of psychological change.
3. Apply philosophical reflection to clinical practice by articulating a more coherent and self-aware theoretical orientation, supporting greater intentionality, flexibility, and ethical clarity in psychodynamic work with diverse patients.