Explores the psychosocial quest for community, broadly conceived, by reflecting on selected group narratives and their impact on individuals, using classics from modern literature. This course uses a systems theory orientation to elaborate ways certain individuals and groups psychologically affect and are psychologically affected by particular economic conditions, including relative personal/familial wealth, perceived status, and relative perceptions of “work”. The course implements psychological techniques from three popular schools of psychotherapy (Psychodynamic, Humanistic, Cognitive-Behavioral) to aid our character/group analyses, in an effort to understand more deeply why and how psychological distress arises in the characters, and how economic forces help shape such anxieties, malaise, and a relative sense of hopefulness.