Overview

Description

CALENDAR DESCRIPTION:

An Interdisciplinary study of the life and works of a man or woman who has made a lasting contribution to the humanistic tradition in more than one field of endeavor(e.g. philosophy, politics, literature, economics, religion). This course may be repeated once for credit Students with credit for this topic under another Humanities course number may not take this course for further credit. Breadth-Humanities.

COURSE DETAILS:

Sigmund Freud and Jacques Lacan

What relationship does psychoanalytical thought bear to cultural critique? Can we read culture ‘symptomatically’ and to what advantage? Is psychoanalysis an individualistic (read bourgeois) endeavor or a social practice? These are some of the questions that we will raise in this course. The seminar focuses on two key figures of 20th century thought: Sigmund Freud, the ‘father’ of psychoanalysis, and Jacques Lacan, his most attentive but also revolutionary and contested reader.

In our readings we will proceed both diachronically and synchronically in order to understand how Freud’s and Lacan’s theories developed and shifted in time as well as in relation to their own historical and cultural context, and the productive ways to which we can put psychoanalysis ‘at work’ in different fields—sociology, literature/film/art, history, geography, cultural critique and political activism. In the course of our discussions, we will consider Freud’s and Lacan’s place alongside figures such as Hegel, Marx and Nietzsche, the relationship of their theories to different social movements and feminist critique, the cultural context of turn-of-the century Vienna and postwar Paris, as well as their criticism of psychology and American therapeutic discourse, which is still relevant to our own times.

Since we are approaching the material from the standpoint of cultural critique and from a Humanities perspective, we will necessarily engage with the writings of some of Freud’s and Lacan’s most celebrated readers—especially Slavoj Zizek and Joan Copjek. We will also enjoy the presence of guest speakers that will illustrate the application of Freud’s and Lacan’s work in their different disciplines of enquiry. The course will conclude with the participation to an event organized in conjunction with the Institute of Humanities and focusing on psychoanalysis, culture, and politics. 

COURSE-LEVEL EDUCATIONAL GOALS:

At the end of the course, students will be proficient in the following activities:

1.     Identify and discuss critically the key aspects of Freud’s and Lacan’s thought with respect to subjectivity and the social world. 2.     Identify and discuss critically the relationship of Freud and Lacan to continental philosophy.
3.     Engage in socio-political and cultural critique through the lens of Freud’s and Lacan’s theories.
4.     Think reflectively about the ethics of psychoanalysis.

Grading

Materials

REQUIRED READING:

RECOMMENDED READING: