Crisis and apocalypse - Detailseite

Students who would like to attend this seminar have to write a motivation letter (max. 2000 characters without spaces) and send it by 1 April 2024 to Prof. Dr. Timo Storck: t.storck@phb.de. Subject line of the email: Motivation letter Humboldt-Universität. Students admitted to the course will be informed by 5 April 2024 via email (general admission to all other courses: 8 April)

Throughout their history humans were faced with threats to life as they knew it. Having to deal with more or less existential crises (and, at times, not being able to) accompanied social and cultural groups on various scales. Among those crises, the ones termed as “apocalyptic” play a particular role: How and why did groups, cities, or whole civilizations vanish or decline? Where do we stand today in terms of “the end of the world as we know it”?

 In this regard, psychology might have some saying in it. How do we perceive crises and possible ways to manage it? What is the psychology of doomsaying and should we maybe just “stay positive”? What role does the imagery of the end of the world play in mental illness? When and how does the human brain collapse? What can psychology contribute do interdisciplinary explorations of crisis and apocalypse?

The course is meant to open up reflection on how we perceive and approach various types of crises from a psychological perspective. Students are expected to actively engage in discussion and prepare reading assignments.