I majored in psychology when I was in college and took a number of courses in the subject, but the one that always stands out to me the most, and the one that has best served me over the years, was Abnormal Psychology.
It was a class devoted specifically to the study of psychological disorders and psychoses and was absolutely fascinating. Abnormal psychology not only taught me about such things as depression, anti-social personality disorder and schizophrenia, but it also showed me how to recognize possible symptoms of psychological disorders in other people.
I took the class in my junior year as it was required for my degree, and I immediately became enthralled by the course. Abnormal psychology was so interesting, in fact, that I would often neglect my studies in other classes because I was spending all of my time reading and researching the material in that class.
One of the things that I found most interesting was the number of people who were in the course that were not psychology majors. Several members of the class were English, education and even music majors, but had just thought that the class sounded like it would fun and opted to enroll in it as an elective.
I met up with one of those friends a few years ago at a local bar and grill, and we talked about the course 10 years after we had graduated and moved on with our lives. She was now a band director for a middle school, but said she was always thankful that she had taken that class because it allowed her to recognize psychological problems that some of her students, and even some of their parents, were having.
I think what I found so appealing about abnormal psychology was that it is really the crux of what psychologists do. It taught me why people who suffer from mental health disorders have the problems they do, whether it is a chemical imbalance and need need for medical treatment, or a behavioral disorder, and can be addressed with behavior modification and therapy.
I remember speaking to the professor of the class about how much I enjoyed the course and how fascinating it was to me, and he confessed that out of all of the classes he taught, abnormal psychology was his favorite as well. He said that he had seen more students have that moment of confirmation that they had chosen the right major in that class than in any other he had ever taught.
For me, the abnormal psychology class is one that I still look back on as the course that made me realize had had selected the right course of study. It taught me more about the field of psychology than any other class, and I will still go back and read from the courses' textbook from time to time.