Course and Contact Information
AS3361 Knowing Your Mind, Lecture A, 3-credit course
Fall 2014
Corcoran College of the Arts and Design
Columbian College of Arts and Sciences, The George Washington University
Downtown: Room 14A
Monday 3:15 to 6:00
Instructor
Susan C. Fox, Ph.D.
susancfox@gwu.edu
Office Hours: By appointment
Course Description:
How is it that we come to know things? How do we process this information to
know our own way of thinking and to come to terms with an external world? This
course will explore several different methods of Western psychology that have
developed throughout the twentieth century that explore how the mind works in
processing the stimulation from the external world and how this processing is
framed by the cultural and social principles and values that inform the subject how
to process, understand, and in the end conditions us to think in the manner that we
do. Some methodologies we will explore: American Pragmatism, Psychoanalysis,
Analytic Psychology and Gestalt Theory. In conjunction with these methodologies, in
the latter part of the course we will take up explore how these meanings and values
inform our understanding of gender and gender identities.
Course Objectives
In order to understand how we perceive and understand ourselves, it is important to
understand how we think and what are the mechanisms at work. Such mechanisms are
not simply biological, but also social, cultural, intellectual and they all inform how we
think, how we behave and how we perceive the world in general. By the end of this
course you should understand the foundations and historical development of Western
psychological principles that inform our perceptions and how it is that we come to
have the perspectives of our world, and how historically we have transformed our
knowledge of ourselves. This course will provide a sound beginning for students to
begin to question and engage the historical impact humanities and psychology has had
on how we understand ourselves and their artistic, journalistic or educational work
with which they are engaged in other courses and departments. This course will assist
students in understanding their own work whether it is artistic, journalistic or
educational by connecting how we form relations to others, to ourselves as thinkers
and identities, and how others see us as a culture, group or within the historical
framework in which we live. Artists, journalists and educators assist in our cultural
and individual understanding of ourselves. This is especially true in the twentieth and
twenty-first centuries where the transformation of the knowledge of ourselves is in
continual flux.
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Course Learning Outcomes
1. Students will understand the foundations and historical development of Western
psychological principles that inform our perceptions and knowledge of ourselves.
2. Students will be able to critically engage and assess the impact humanities and
psychology has had on their artistic, journalistic or educational work with which they
are engaged.
3. Students will understand their own work whether it is artistic, journalistic or
educational by connecting how we form relations to others, to ourselves as thinkers
and identities, and how others see us as a culture, group or within the historical
framework in which we live.
Grading/Assignments:
—Three 2-3-page response papers: 60% You will have the opportunity to choose
three authors out of the seven that we will be reading. See the more detailed
assignment instruction sheet.
—Discussion Facilitation: Each student will be responsible for facilitating one of the
discussion portions of the class each week. Such facilitation will make up 20% of
your final grade. See the more detailed discussion facilitation instruction sheet.
—Attendance/Discussion Participation: 20% of your final grade. Because this class
demands active engagement with the material and with your fellow students,
attendance is mandatory. If you have more than three absences you will fail the
course. Students who are more than ten minutes late for class will be marked
absent, therefore if you are late for more than three classes your grade will be
lowered half a grade and half a grade for each consecutive class in which you are
late.
Grading Standards and Criteria:
All of your written work and discussion facilitations will be graded according to your
ability to assess, critically analyze and formulate questions regarding the author
and/or readings that you chose. The key to the written assignments (each paper will
account for 20% of your final grade) will be to clearly flesh out the ideas of the author
and how those ideas influence or affect how we understand ourselves. The goal of the
discussion facilitations is to ask questions that create discussion for further
examination of the work and begin to assess how that author understands the world
and how our perceptions influence the meaning that we attribute to our lives.
Discussion facilitations will make up 20% of your final grade.
Course Requirements/Materials
All course readings will be available on Black Board and or links for pdf copies online.
You are required to print out these readings and bring them to class as we will be
working with the readings very closely.
Course Policies
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Participation in Discussion: Participation is mandatory. We are covering a lot of
material in this course and it is vital that you participate to further your and your
fellow students' understanding.
Attendance: Students are expected to attend all class sessions and course-related
activities. Three absences are grounds for automatic failure. In exceptional
circumstances, the Director of Student Affairs in coordination with the
Administrative Chair or Program Head may approve emergency absences for
medical or other legitimate reasons. In such cases, students are required to provide
medical or other supporting documentation. Absences due to religious holidays
must be pre-approved by the instructor one week in advance of the absence.
Reading: All the assigned readings must be completed before coming to class. We will
work closely with the texts, so it crucial that you bring your photocopies with you.
Please write down any questions you have while reading the texts. All readings will be
available as handouts and in the library.
Late Policy: Students are expected to be on time. If you are more than 15 minutes
late you will be counted as absent. Attending class on time is essential for a good
class. Late-comers are disruptive and will miss important announcements.
Classroom: No food is permitted in the classroom. There is no eating in the
classroom!! Drinks are allowed. Respect for others in the classroom is mandatory.
Academic Integrity Code
I personally support the GW Code of Academic Integrity. It states: “Academic
dishonesty is defined as cheating of any kind, including misrepresenting one's own
work, taking credit for the work of others without crediting them and without
appropriate authorization, and the fabrication of information.” For the remainder of
the code, see: http://www.gwu.edu/~ntegrity/code.html
Support For Students Outside The Classroom
DISABILITY SUPPORT SERVICES (DSS)
Any student who may need an accommodation based on the potential impact of a
disability should contact the Disability Support Services office at 202-994-8250 in
the Marvin Center, Suite 242, to establish eligibility and to coordinate reasonable
accommodations. For additional information please refer to:
http://gwired.gwu.edu/dss/
University Counseling Center (UCC) 202-994-5300
The University Counseling Center (UCC) offers 24/7 assistance and referral to
address students' personal, social, career, and study skills problems. Services for
students include:
—crisis and emergency mental health consultations
—confidential assessment, counseling services (individual and small group), and
referrals
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http://students.gwu.edu/university-counseling-center
Security
In the case of an emergency, if at all possible, the class should shelter in place. If the
building that the class is in is affected, follow the evacuation procedures for the
building. After evacuation, seek shelter at a predetermined rendezvous location.
FALL COURSE SCHEDULE
Week 1—September 8
Introduction, Syllabus, Course Requirements: Introduction to the European Mind
1850's Arthur Schopenhauer/Darwinism
Reading—"On the Suffering of the World"
http://www.graycadence.com/OntheSufferingoftheWorld.pdf
Week 2—September 15
Schopenhauer
Reading—"Freedom of Will;" "Principle of Sufficient Reason;" "The World as Will"
Week 3—September 22
Schopenhauer
Reading—"On the Inner Nature of Art;" "The Artist and the Sublime"
Week 4—September 29
Philosophical Psychology—Fredrick Nietzsche
Readings—sections of "Genealogy of Morals"
Week 5—October 6
Philosophical Psychology—Fredrick Nietzsche
Readings—(conti) sections of "Genealogy of Morals"
Week 6—October 13
Psychoanalysis—Sigmund Freud
Readings—The Freud Reader —"The Ego and the Id," and "The Unconscious,"
Week 7—October 20
Psychoanalysis—Sigmund Freud
Readings—The Freud Reader —"Civilization and its Discontents"
Week 8—October 27
Analytic Psychology—Carl Jung
Readings: The Portable Jung —"The Concept of the Collective Unconscious,"
Week 9—November 3
Analytic Psychology—Carl Jung
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Readings: The Portable Jung —"Aion: Phenomenology of the Self" and "The Spiritual
Problem of Modern Man,"
Week 10—November 10
Pragmatism—William James/Darwinism
Reading—William James: The Principle of Psychology Volume 1 — "The Conscious
Self" and "The Self"
Week 11—November 17
Pragmatism—William James
Reading—(continue) William James: "The Emotions"
Week 12—November 24
Pragmatism—William James
Reading—William James: The Principle of Psychology Volume 2 — "Instinct" and
"Will"
Week 13—December 1 Gestalt Theory— Fritz Perls
Reading—Gestalt Theory: Excitement and Growth in the Human Personality—
"Theory of the Self" and "Technique of Awareness,"
Week 14—December 8
Psychology of Learning—Deborah P. Britzman
Reading— selected chapter of Lost Subjects, Contested Objects: Toward a
Psychoanalytic Inquiry of Learning
Week 15—December 15
Psychology of Gender Reading— selected chapter of Lost Subjects, Contested Objects:
Toward a Psychoanalytic Inquiry of Learning
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Discussion Facilitation
You will be responsible for facilitating one class discussion. Since this is not a
presentation, you do not need to have an essay or lecture; or have solved the
many issues that we are confronting. The goal here is to begin to flesh out the
reading and its many facets, and to begin to engage with the text in a way that
facilitates a discussion with your colleagues.
What to do:
1) Come prepared.
2) After completing the reading(s) for that week bring something with you—
Notes for discussion, questions, citations, or problems, concepts that you
wish to explore.
3) Options:
A) Bring in citations that you are having difficulty understanding, find
provocative, or have problems issues with. Ask questions about the citation,
what it means, what it is trying to say, or what you believe it is not saying.
B) Focus on what the essay may be saying and connect it to our own work as
artists.
C) Find the crux of the problem whether it be what the essay is addressing or
what it fails to address.
D) Connect a problem/issue or citation with a previous reading or discussion.
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Instructions for Three 3-page response papers
You will have the opportunity to write on three of the authors and apply or give an
exegesis of their understanding of art, beauty or aesthetic experience, knowledge,
desire or suffering. Each paper is worth 20% of your final grade for a total of 60% of
your grade.
Your first paper is due by October 6. Therefore, it will be on either Schopenhauer or
Nietzsche.
Your second, and third paper will be on authors that you choose.
Your papers will be graded according to the following:
1) Your understanding of the philosopher and your ability to articulate his/her
theory or a portion of his/her theory with clarity, citing major points and
using your text for support.
2) Providing an analysis of a significant artwork by using this theory and the
concepts within elaborating on the techniques and methods used by the
artist or the affect the artist is producing.
Format—These papers will follow the MLA format for citation, double spaced and
stapled or paper clipped.
http://www.liunet.edu/cwis/cwp/library/workshop/citmla.htm
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