Overview

Description

CALENDAR DESCRIPTION:

An interdisciplinary study of the life and works of an individual who has made a lasting contribution to the humanistic tradition in more than one field of endeavour (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:

Who was Sigmund Freud, the “father” of psychoanalysis? How did Freud’s discourse of the unconscious originate and what does it contribute to our modern times?  How does psychoanalysis reconcile the singularity of desire with the need for a social bond? Is Freud’s psychoanalysis useful for socio-cultural critique? What is the legacy of Freud’s thought in the work of Jacques Lacan, his most attentive but also revolutionary and contested reader?

In this course, we will study texts that contributed to the development of Freud’s theory about the unconscious and culture—from Screen Memories and The Interpretation of Dreams to Beyond the Pleasure Principle and Civilization and Its Discontent—alongside the famous (or infamous!) case studies, which will give us an insight into the development of Freud’s practice and into some of the best literary writings of the 20^th century (Dora, Little Hans, Wolfman, Ratman).

We will use these writings to better understand Freud’s life world and his examination of the role of the social in the work of the psyche: his criticism of Vienna’s bourgeois culture, his relationship to women (analysands or followers), his relationship to Jewish identity and the response to the traumatic rise of Fascism in Europe. Some of the material we will discuss was indeed written by women—the work of his daughter Anna, Joan Riviere’s essay “Woman as Masquerade” (1929), the notebooks of American poet Hilda Doolittle, the correspondence with the fascinating (and future analyst) Lou Andreas-Salomé—who were in turn to contribute to the future development of Freudian psychoanalysis. But we will also examine the discourse of the “return to Freud,” initiated by French psychoanalyst Jacques Lacan as a challenge to the institutionalization and taming of the radicalism of Freud’s thought at the hand of American Ego Psychology, and the effects of such “return” in the production of Lacanian thought.

In our readings we will proceed both diachronically and synchronically in order to understand how Freud’s and Lacan’s theories developed in time but also how psychoanalysis can be put ‘at work’ in different fields—social thought, literature/film/art, history, geography, cultural critique and political activism—and how some of Freud’s and Lacan’s most celebrated readers—Julia Kristeva, Slavoj Zizek and Joan Copjek—have engaged with their work.

TEACHING MODE: Synchronous lecture – recorded.

This seminar requires a weekly two-hour and a half contact “in class” for lecture and discussion. The remaining hours will be used by students for self-study and assignments on Canvas. The reduced contact hours are meant to lessen the impact of ‘Zoom fatigue’. We will also have breaks for coffee or just to rest eyes and ears. We will all work to build a vibrant online community to make the best of the current circumstances.

COURSE-LEVEL EDUCATIONAL GOALS:

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

1. Read and analyze Humanities Texts creatively and to academic standards
2. Develop an understanding of the central aspects of Freud’s and Lacan’s thought with respect to subjectivity and the social world.
3. Develop an understanding of the relationship of Freud and Lacan to continental philosophy.
4. Develop an understanding of the role of women in the formation and development of Freud’s and Lacan’s thought.
5. Engage in socio-political and cultural critique through the lens of Freud’s and Lacan’s theories.
6. Think reflectively about the ethics of psychoanalysis.

 

Grading

Materials

REQUIRED READING: