Institute for Psychoanalytic Education
First Year Freud sequence
March-June, 2015
Fredric Perlman, PhD, FIPA
Mercer Street, Apt 3L
New York, NY 10003
(212) 505-7751
Freud: The Transitional Years (1905-1920)
Introduction
This course will focus on the middle phase of Freud’s theoretical work. Readings and
class discussions will trace the development of Freud's theoretical contributions from
1914 to 1923. The course will begin with a review of Freud’s work from 1893 to 1913,
including the libido theory and its applications in Freud’s theory of love, character, and
art. In subsequent weeks, we will trace the challenges to that theory and the ensuing
changes in Freud’s thinking that eventuated in the theoretical shifts to be considered in
the next course.
Reading assignments:
All readings in Freud are available on PEP web. However, I will distribute the Freud
readings for Week Two (Freud, 1905; Freud, 1910; Freud, 1912) for convenience. The
digitized version of the 1905 text is the original 1905 version and excludes all later
footnotes and insertions. Reading the original text in this way is intended to clarifies
how the theory developed during the years we will study together.
All other texts will be provided in a digitized format.
Week One: The development of Freud’s theory (1893-1905)
Discussion of the development of Freud’s theory, clinical technique, and key concepts from 18931905.
Handout: Timeline of Freud’s life and work.
Week Two: The libido theory and the first psychoanalytic theory of love
Recommended for review: Freud, S. (1905). The transformations of puberty. In Three
Essays. Standard Edition: Volume VII.
Freud, S. (1910). A special type of object choice in men. Standard Edition: Volume XI
Freud, S. (1912). On the tendency to degradation in the sphere of love. Standard Edition:
Volume XI
Recommended: Abraham, K. (1913). On neurotic exogamy: A contribution to the
similarities in the psychic life of neurotics and of primitive man. In Abraham, H. (ed.).
Clinical papers and essays on psychoanalysis: Selected papers of Karl Abraham. New York:
Basic Books, 1955.
Week Three: The libido theory: character and art
“The fact of the existence of sexual needs in human beings and animals is expressed in biology by the
assumption of a ‘sexual instinct’, on the analogy of the instinct of nutrition, that is of hunger. Everyday
language possesses no counterpart to the word ‘hunger’, but science makes use of the word ‘libido’ for that
purpose.” -- First two sentences in Freud, S. (1905), The Three Essays on the Theory of Sexuality
Freud, S. (1908). Creative writers and day-dreaming. Standard Edition: Volume IX.
Freud, S. (1908). Character and anal erotism. Standard Edition: Volume IX.
Week Four: The libido theory: Transference Love
Freud, S. (1912). Dynamics of the Transference. Standard Edition: XII.
Freud, S. (1915). Observations on Transference Love. Standard Edition: XII.
Week Five: Theory confounded: Homosexuality, paranoia, and the concept of
narcissism
Recommended: Handout: The emergence of the concept of narcissism: Introduction and
Selected readings from the psychoanalytic literature, including Freud’s papers on
Leonardo Da Vinci (1910), the Schreber case (1911) and Totem and Taboo (1913).
Recommended: Abraham, K. (1908). The psychosexual differences between hysteria and
dementia praecox. In Abraham. K. Selected Papers on Psycho-analysis. London: Hogarth
Press, 1927. Reprinted by Brunner Mazel.
Freud, S. (1914). On Narcissism: An Introduction. Standard Edition: Volume XIV.
Recommended: Handout: Freud, S. (1915). The Libido Theory (Addition to the Third
Edition of Three Essays on Sexuality). Standard Edition: Volume VII.
Week Six: Instincts reviewed.
(1915). Instincts and their vicissitudes. Standard Edition: Volume XIV.
Week Seven: Repression reviewed.
Freud, S. (1915). Repression. Standard Edition: Volume XIV.
Week Eight: The unconscious.
Freud, S. (1915). The unconscious. Standard Edition: Volume XIV.
Week Nine: Abraham and Freud on The Psychology of Depression
Recommended: Abraham, K. (1911). Notes on the psycho-analytical investigation and
treatment of manic-depressive insanity and allied conditions. In Abraham,K., Selected
Papers on Psycho-analysis. London: Hogarth Press, 1927. Reprinted by Brunner Mazel.
Freud, S. (1917). Mourning and melancholia. Standard Edition: Volume XIV
Week Ten: Instinct Theory Revised: The life and death instincts
Freud, S. (1920), Beyond the Pleasure Principle. Standard Edition: Volume XVIII.
Recommended: Ferenczi, S. (1929). The unwelcome child and his death instinct.
International Journal of Psycho-Analysis, Volume 10: 125-129