Is the reading I do bad for Oxford PPL?

Hello,

So I've been battling for awhile on whether or not PPL, primarily Psychology and Philosophy , would be right for me.

The course structure given is quite vague in detail but I've been gaining information from past/current students here/elsewhere and found more out, and found that psychology is heavily scientific (which was stated in the course structure , but I got some more clarity on the ratio and type of neuroscientific vs behaviour/cognitive/social/developmental lectures there are, ranging from looking into Henry Molaison in detail and the influences of the hippocampi regions and temporal medial lobe, to looking into the development of autism in children) , and philosophy is based is primarily based in Analytic Philosophy.

Although I do think I enjoy these topics , with me reading the Lucifer Effect by Zimbardo , the Introduction to Formal Logic by forallx (from a Cambridge Pelican programme that I'm doing), and I am planning on reading Kant after I finish Dawkins , the primary book that I have had enjoyed the most has most likely been Existential Psychotherapy, in which Yalom talks about existentialism in a psychological way and how it affects people both neurotypically and psychopathologically and how to aid clients in understanding their existential awareness and give action to it.

I enjoy reading Yalom's book because it feeds into my integrative psychotherapy passion, where I can look into different ideologies and interpretations of how we behave and how I can use these interpretations to understand and help people better.

My worry is that Yalom's book is too far away from the type of course structure in Oxford, with existentialism being Continental, and the psychotherapy being mostly interpretative based.

Would a passion for this type of reading (amongst other topics ) be a detriment and opposite to the structure of PPL at Oxford? If I talked about existential psychotherapy on my Personal Statement, would I be less likely to get in to the course?

Any advice, especially from PPL students/Oxford Faculty, would be greatly appreciated . Thank you!

Reply 1

eeeli

13

I think you're fine - you want to put across your interests in your personal statement and there is no point lying about them! I wouldn't e.g. make the whole statement about existential psychotherapy - it might imply you think this is a clinical/therapy training course rather than an academic course - but having a specific interest in a pretty unique topic that relates to both Philosophy and Psychology is a great thing to put on a personal statement. I think it would help you stand out from people who haven't ventured as far beyond what they learned at A-level or more popular Psychology/Philosophy books.

Reply 2

Ralfs14711

OP

5

Original post by eeeli

I think you're fine - you want to put across your interests in your personal statement and there is no point lying about them! I wouldn't e.g. make the whole statement about existential psychotherapy - it might imply you think this is a clinical/therapy training course rather than an academic course - but having a specific interest in a pretty unique topic that relates to both Philosophy and Psychology is a great thing to put on a personal statement. I think it would help you stand out from people who haven't ventured as far beyond what they learned at A-level or more popular Psychology/Philosophy books.

(Oh hey Eeeli), Thank you! I was thinking to discuss how Psychology and philosophy intertwine greatly, and how your philosophical beliefs and the challenging of such can greatly affect the way in which you behave in the world (or lack thereof in such cases where people's morals are placed to the test in Zimbardo's and Milgram's experiments), and in contrast, how one can use psychological interpretations and ideas to help people in the world.

Hopefully using Yalom's Existential Psychotherapy, along with Sugrue's lectures (if I hopefully will be able to pick other unis that it will work for both psychology and philosophy), to convey as key examples of my intellectual passion for such ideas, rather than presenting merely a focus on psychotherapy training and/or on Continental philosophy.

I'm hoping that using that for a Personal Statement will seem authentic and academic enough, but it's nice to gain some feedback from others.

Reply 3

eeeli

13

Original post by Ralfs14711

(Oh hey Eeeli), Thank you! I was thinking to discuss how Psychology and philosophy intertwine greatly, and how your philosophical beliefs and the challenging of such can greatly affect the way in which you behave in the world (or lack thereof in such cases where people's morals are placed to the test in Zimbardo's and Milgram's experiments), and in contrast, how one can use psychological interpretations and ideas to help people in the world.

Hopefully using Yalom's Existential Psychotherapy, along with Sugrue's lectures (if I hopefully will be able to pick other unis that it will work for both psychology and philosophy), to convey as key examples of my intellectual passion for such ideas, rather than presenting merely a focus on psychotherapy training and/or on Continental philosophy.

I'm hoping that using that for a Personal Statement will seem authentic and academic enough, but it's nice to gain some feedback from others.

All these ideas sound great - keep doing what you're doing!

Reply 4

Ralfs14711

OP

5

Original post by eeeli

Original post by Ralfs14711

(Oh hey Eeeli), Thank you! I was thinking to discuss how Psychology and philosophy intertwine greatly, and how your philosophical beliefs and the challenging of such can greatly affect the way in which you behave in the world (or lack thereof in such cases where people's morals are placed to the test in Zimbardo's and Milgram's experiments), and in contrast, how one can use psychological interpretations and ideas to help people in the world.

Hopefully using Yalom's Existential Psychotherapy, along with Sugrue's lectures (if I hopefully will be able to pick other unis that it will work for both psychology and philosophy), to convey as key examples of my intellectual passion for such ideas, rather than presenting merely a focus on psychotherapy training and/or on Continental philosophy.

I'm hoping that using that for a Personal Statement will seem authentic and academic enough, but it's nice to gain some feedback from others.

All these ideas sound great - keep doing what you're doing!

Thank you! I will try my best

Is the reading I do bad for Oxford PPL?

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