Master of Arts (MA) in Psychology in English

This MA program explores one of the most differentiated and contemporary perspectives of the human psyche, as indeed for one of the most modern of the human sciences. As a science of the unconscious, psychoanalysis is not just a therapeutic method. It also represents a theory of science and knowledge, one that is located between the natural sciences and the humanities, cultural studies and social sciences, and which connects these lines of tradition in an innovative, forward-thinking manner.

With our Master's program, a unique, multi-layered study course is waiting for you that will prepare you for an equally diverse professional life and career. The study course’s clinical direction, which focuses on psychodynamic-psychoanalytical approaches, provides solid education and training in research methods. At the same time, this is broadened on a fundamental level with in-depth knowledge from non-clinical application areas of psychological and psychoanalytical thinking.

While its curriculum is based on the recommendations of the German Psychological Society (DGPs), one focus of the studies is on learning to apply fundamental diagnostic, counseling and therapeutic competencies. The course's psychoanalytical direction is reflected in the fact that, in addition to behavioral therapy, Gestalt therapy, systemic and other methods, the psychoanalytical methods represent the focus here.

Furthermore, the conveying of empirical and statistical methods is intended to also include those methods which are especially suited to record and map the processes and the results of any psychoanalytical treatment.

Ultimately, the psychoanalytical direction is also reflected in the fact that the students not only become familiar with psychoanalysis as a psychotherapeutic method but also as cultural theory and applied social science. The study course has been approved and officially accredited by the Berlin Senate.

Please keep in mind that almost all extracurricular offers at the IPU Berlin are provided in German and that sufficient German language skills will strongly ease your everyday life in Berlin. All applicants of the MA Psychology study course with a clinical focus are thus strongly encouraged to start learning German before arriving.

The International Psychoanalytic University (IPU) Berlin is a state-recognized private university accredited by the German Council of Science and Humanities, the Wissenschaftsrat, which is owned and managed by the non-profit representative legal entity, the Foundation to Promote University Psychoanalysis. It combines exacting scientific standards with practical psychology study courses (BA and MA courses), as well as with study courses in psychosis therapy, psychoanalytical cultural studies, leadership and consulting, intended to be taken part-time parallel to work. The university campus is situated directly at the Spree River in the Berlin-Mitte district.

With the commencement of lectures at the IPU in 2009, a gap was closed that had arisen in the one-sided, natural sciences direction of the academic psychology study courses. The study courses at the IPU convey psychoanalysis as a science that maps the human as a biological, social and culturally shaped being and seeks to understand the individual against the background of their personal history and under the influence of the unconscious. All of the study courses at the IPU are both research and application-oriented and provide close contact with clinical and pedagogical practice from the first study semester.

IPU Mission Statement

The IPU facilitates studies, advanced studies, and further education, as well as research on a psychoanalytical basis, and pursues a transdisciplinary understanding of science in its fields of teaching and research.

In dialogue with other sciences, it contributes to the further development of psychoanalysis as an applied social science and cultural theory.

It conveys psychoanalysis as science which maps the human as a biological, social and culturally shaped being and which seeks to understand the individual against the background of their personal history and under the influence of the unconscious.

The scientists lecturing and researching at the IPU have gained many years of experience in practice, teaching and research. They enjoy excellent learning and working conditions with the required resources at their disposal.

Analysis, discussion, and shared development – on an interdisciplinary level and beyond the limitations of any status groups – represent a defining criterion of the scientific and organizational work at the IPU.

The IPU builds up networks and establishes cooperative arrangements with national and international partners in science, training, and practice, which promote mutual enrichment in terms of content and positive perception among the general public.

The IPU fosters a (self) reflective attitude in teaching, research and on an application level, a close link between application and research, as well as an interdisciplinary and international dialogue. It contributes to the healthcare of the overall population.