How does the unconscious influence our cultural experience? Which psychic dynamics shape societal developments? And how does culture shape our thinking, feeling and acting? Human thinking, feeling and acting is embedded in a complex network of cultural meanings. Culture fulfills a central orientational function for physical, linguistic, sentient and acting subjects. It lends meaning and significance to everyday actions in a specific way. At the same time, heterogeneous cultures and the simultaneity of multiple cultures indicate the potential for conflict that significantly shapes our social and political coexistence.
Our new Master's program offers a unique opportunity to explore the complex interplay between the individual and culture. The focus is on psychoanalytic cultural studies and cultural psychology, which jointly examine how unconscious processes shape our cultural environment and culture in general. The assumption of a reciprocal constitutive relationship between culture and the psyche is essential: How do emotions and affects, individual and collective fantasies influence societal discourses and practices? What role do unconscious processes play in societal conflicts? Why do myths and symbols, rituals and narratives exert such a strong fascination on us? How do media and art influence our self-image - and what psychological dynamics shape cultural change?
The study program places particular emphasis on the analysis of unconscious influences on cultural phenomena and culturally influenced individuals. Films, everyday objects and other cultural artifacts are used to explore how the unconscious both shapes society and is influenced by the societal context. Hermeneutic-interpretative methods of psychoanalytic cultural studies are combined with empirical-qualitative approaches of cultural psychology in an epistemologically productive perspective. The study program thus combines depth psychology theories with cultural studies analysis and offers innovative approaches for investigating central societal and cultural phenomena. By closely linking theory and practice, students learn not only to systematically analyze current cultural and societal developments and understand them in a psychoanalytically informed way, but also to make contributions to changing social reality in concrete fields of action.
The study program is aimed at graduates of cultural and social sciences, psychology, philosophy, art and media studies as well as other relevant, interdisciplinary study programs (such as cultural studies, gender studies, postcolonial studies, religious studies) who are interested in the fundamental dimension of cultural processes.
The full-time study program will start in the winter semester 2025/2026 with a strong professional practice component. Related PhD opportunities are available. The Hans Kilian and Lotte Köhler Center for Social and Cultural Psychology and Historical Anthropology, which will have its headquarters at the IPU in winter semester 2025/26, will be involved in the curricular offerings of the study program. The KKC is guided by criteria of academic excellence and is committed to promoting young talent at Master's and doctoral level.
| Degree | Master of Arts |
| Type | Full-time study program |
| Credits | 120 credit points |
| Duration | 4 semesters |
| Number of students | max. 30 per academic year |
| Teaching/learning formats | In addition to lectures and seminars, interactive formats in small groups, workshops, project work, participatory forms of teaching research, excursions |
| Teaching language | German |
| Prerequisite | Undergraduate degree (e.g. cultural studies, humanities or social sciences, psychology, sociology, ethnology) |
| Fees | Payment per semester €4,000 |
| Start date | Each winter semester |
The Master's degree qualifies graduates for work in science, culture, education and psychosocial practice, e.g. in
- research and teaching in cultural studies, psychology and social sciences, including the prospect of pursuing a PhD at the IPU;
- cultural and interdisciplinary research in museums, archives and artistic institutions (including theatres and concert halls, festivals and other large-scale events)
- consulting and analysis in cultural policy, migration and integration policy, media and intercultural projects, NGOs
- consulting and conceptual work in educational institutions (universities, schools), in government agencies and authorities, political and cultural institutions at the international, federal, state and municipal level (EU, federal, state and city parliaments, departments, etc.)
- psychosocial work in transcultural, gender- and sexuality-related as well as aesthetic-creative fields of practice.
Prospective students can apply for the winter semester.
The application window for the winter semester 2025 opens on 17 April. Further information can be found here.
- Module 1: Theories and Concepts of Psychoanalytic Cultural Theory
In our introductory module, students get to know the interface between psychoanalysis and culture from both sides: on the one hand, cultural questions are an integral part of the development of psychoanalysis, while on the other, psychoanalytical approaches are an important part of cultural studies. In the module, Sigmund Freud's cultural-theoretical writings, among other things, are critically discussed in terms of their relevance and current applicability.
- Module 2: Theories and Concepts of Cultural Psychology
In this module, students learn about central cultural psychological perspectives and research approaches, as well as how to describe, analyze, and explain current societal and individual phenomena. An important part of this is transferring theoretical perspectives to one's own lifeworld contexts and practices.
- Module 3: Theory of Science and Research Methods
In Module 3, students delve into the epistemological and methodological aspects of knowledge acquisition at the interface between psychoanalytic cultural studies and cultural psychology. This is done primarily on the basis of the hermeneutic-interpretative paradigm and in connection with positions from, among others, phenomenology (also in the sense of “embodied research”), pragmatism, constructivism, ideology criticism, for example from the Frankfurt School (with its analyses of interests, privileges, power and oppression) as well as feminist, gender and queer theories (with their focus on the “lived experience” of marginalized groups). In addition, the postcolonial critique of epistemological ethnocentrism, especially of “Western” perspectives and findings, as well as the largely neglected epistemological potential of (other) indigenous approaches, will be integrated.
- Module 4: Dimensions and Dynamics of Difference
Social inequality is, in crucial respects, a component and consequence of power and domination relations in which material and immaterial resources – economic, social, cultural, symbolic capital – as well as the dependent possibilities of social participation are distributed asymmetrically and unjustly. In this module, students discuss such differences and inequalities along the dimensions of class, stratum, milieu, education and knowledge, gender, generation, nation, ethnicity and culture. Particular attention is paid to the theorems of intersectionality. These emphasize that conventionalized disadvantages can intensify and accumulate on different dimensions of inequality.
- Module 5: Psychoanalysis and Media Culture
This module is an introduction to media theory. Students learn about the various facets of the relationship between psychoanalysis, culture and media. On the one hand, it is about technical, apparative and instrumental media in a psychotherapeutic setting and their communicative function in the therapeutic process (writing, paper, pen, book, visual presentations, tape, voice, body, film, telephone, series, digital media). In addition, their function in the formation and communication of psychoanalytic theories is examined and their connection to psychoanalytic knowledge practices is recorded (recording, noting, observing, listening).
- Module 6: Aesthetics in art and everyday life
In this module, students are taught the basics of psychoanalytic literary and art theory based on Sigmund Freud's writings on literature and aesthetics. The focus is on concepts such as slip of the pen, fantasy, desire, poetry, symbol/symptom, compensation, ambiguity, relief, sublimation, dream and artefact, which are used to understand both everyday phenomena (joke, promise) and art.
- Module 7: Counselling concepts and practice
This module is about the relevance of transformation processes in society as a whole and their effects on individuals, groups, institutions and organizations, whose continuous change processes are the primary subject of current counseling practice. The focus is on practical foundations in the area of gender, transcultural and diversity competencies for (organizational) consulting and personnel development processes (e.g. team development, coaching and supervision). Students also get an overview of the various fields of application and, in particular, the psychodynamically based “basic skills” that are used in the different settings of counseling. The theoretical and methodological foundations of psychodynamic counseling include, among other things, group-analytical perspectives, mediation techniques, and psychodynamic conceptualizations of the counseling relationship, including transference and countertransference dynamics.
- Module 8: Internship
This module consists of practical work, writing an internship report and a reflective discussion.
- Module 9: Related Fields
Students complete modules in a related field in addition to their core subject. These may be modules from master's programs in sociology, philosophy and/or literary studies or similar programs at universities in Berlin and Brandenburg. The course content can be found in the module descriptions of the Master's programs from which the courses originate.
- Module 10: Master's thesis
This module consists of writing the Master's thesis, an accompanying research colloquium (in the fourth semester, one hour per week) and a disputation.
- Prof. Jürgen Straub
- Dr. Pradeep Chakkarath
- Prof. Christine Kirchhoff
- Prof. Benigna Gerisch
- Prof. Phil C. Langer
The IPU participates in the Deutschlandstipendium program, a scholarship program funded by the German government and open to applications from all students.The most important criteria for receiving such funding, which amounts to €300 per month, are previous academic performance, societal engagement, and financial need.
The IPU is a member of the Student Loan Society Berlin e.V. (DAKA). As a student at the IPU, you can get a loan from them at the most favorable conditions in all of Berlin.
Current options for financing your studies can be found here.