Kant/Freud/Nietche/Marx/Darwin

Enlightenment
In his famous 1784 essay What Is Enlightenment?, Immanuel Kant described it as follows:

"Enlightenment is man's release from his self-incurred tutelage. Tutelage is the incapacity to use one's own understanding without the guidance of another. Such tutelage is self-imposed if its cause is not lack of intelligence, but rather a lack of determination and courage to use one's intelligence without being guided by another."

Kant reasoned that although a man must obey in his civil duties, he must make public his use of reason. His motto for enlightenment is "Dare to know."
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/What_Is_Enlightenment%3F#Basic_understanding

Psycoanalysis

Psychoanalysis was founded by Sigmund Freud (1856-1939). Freud believed that people could be cured by making conscious their unconscious thoughts and motivations, thus gaining “insight”.

The aim of psychoanalysis therapy is to release repressed emotions and experiences, i.e. make the unconscious conscious. 

Assumptions:

• Psychoanalytic psychologists see psychological problems as rooted in the unconscious mind.
• Manifest symptoms are caused by latent (hidden) disturbances.
• Typical causes include unresolved issues during development or repressed trauma.
• Treatment focuses on bringing the repressed conflict to consciousness, where the client can deal with it.

In psychoanalysis (therapy) Freud would have a patient lie on a couch to relax, and he would sit behind them taking notes while they told him about their dreams and childhood memories. Psychoanalysis would be a lengthy process, involving many sessions with the psychoanalyst.

Due to the nature of defense mechanisms and the inaccessibility of the deterministic forces operating in the unconscious, psychoanalysis in its classic form is a lengthy process often involving 2 to 5 sessions per week for several years. This approach assumes that the reduction of symptoms alone is relatively inconsequential as if the underlying conflict is not resolved, more neurotic symptoms will simply be substituted. The analyst typically is a 'blank screen', disclosing very little about themselves in order that the client can use the space in the relationship to work on their unconscious without interference from outside.

http://www.simplypsychology.org/psychoanalysis.html 

Post-modern Media

• What are the different versions of post-modernism (historical period, style, theoretical approach)?
• What are the arguments for and against understanding some forms of media as post-modern?
• How do post-modern media texts challenge traditional text-reader relations and the concept of representation?
• In what ways do media audiences and industries operate differently in a post-modern world?

Candidates might explore combinations of:
How post-modern media relate to genre and narrative across two media, computer/video games, virtual worlds, augmented reality and new forms of representation, post-modern cinema, interactive media, social media and social networking, reality TV, music video, advertising, post-modern audience theories, aspects of globalisation, parody and pastiche in media texts or a range of other applications of post-modern media theory.