Infusing Mental Health in Design Education: A Case Study on Transdisciplinarity and Empathy as Mediums for Innovation

Abstract

Riane Eisler’s partnership model capitalizes on mutual respect and benefit to empower all relations, an approach that is instrumental to teaching around mental health. Many of the thoughts, urges or behaviors associated with Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD) revolve around spatial characteristics of interior built environments. Yet little has been studied on how to infuse such complex problems into design education, which can transform the lives of patients and their families in ways that are both sensitive to students as well as empowering. This paper uses a series of introspections to unpack the lessons learned from a transdisciplinary partnership between an interior design and a product design faculty member who, through a product design studio course, tackled the challenge of designing for youth living with OCD. Three primary themes of reflections and lessons are analyzed: transdisciplinarity, empathy, and course structure. As the analysis reveals, future pedagogical efforts on transdisciplinarity must account for fit - from course objectives to timeline – along with the time and energy needed; a more nuanced approach to empathy must be adopted where the possibility to overwhelm and instill fear in students are balanced with innovation; and fusing research into the design curriculum and course structure must be situated within a more fluid process and also centered on outcomes.