History 395
The Irrational in History
Dr. Cocks
Fall 2011
Syllabus
Classroom: Rob 206, TR 2:15-4:05
Office: Rob 209; Office Hours: MTWRF 10:20-11, R 4:10-5 + by appt. & happenstance
Office Phone: 0390; Home Phone: 629-5795; email: gcocks@albion.edu
See also “Course Materials” Link at:
www.albion.edu/academics/history/faculty-and-staff/12-geoffrey-cocks
READINGS (to be read by the first date under which they are listed in the syllabus):
Sigmund Freud, Five Lectures on Psycho-Analysis (college bookstore)
Sigmund Freud, New Introductory Lectures on Psychoanalysis (college bookstore)
Arthur Schnitzler, Dream Story (college bookstore)
Erik Erikson, “Reflections on Dr. Borg’s Life Cycle”
0-www.jstor.org.library.albion.edu/stable/2002438
Judith Gardiner, “Self Psychology as Feminist Theory”
0-www.jstor.org.library.albion.edu/stable/3174212
Nancy Chodorow, The Reproduction of Mothering, 2nd ed. (college bookstore)
Peter Baxter, “The One Woman” (class handout)
Joyce Huntjens, “Vertigo”
(www.imageandnarrative.be/inarchive//uncanny/joycehuntgens.htm)
Geoffrey Cocks and Travis Crosby, eds. Psycho/History (instructor loan copy)
Jerome Winer and James William Anderson, eds., Psychoanalysis and History (ilc)
DISCUSSION
A major portion of your grade for this seminar will be based on critical and creative
understanding of assignments as demonstrated by attendance at and participation in all
class discussions. Participation also constitutes a mandatory contribution to the
learning of others (including me!). No electronic devices during film screenings.
WRITTEN ASSIGNMENTS
You will write three five-to-seven-page typed, double-spaced papers on the weekly
reading; the first must be on the second-week assignments (due September 6) and two
must be completed by October 4. Each week we will devote some time to discuss
possible paper questions, critiques, and issues that would make good paper topics. Please
bring ideas to class each week and remind me to discuss possible topics each Tuesday.
Each paper is due at the beginning of the first class of the week after the week for which
the reading is assigned. Use in-text citations for course readings, e.g.: (Freud, p. 237).
You will also write a fifteen-page research paper (Chicago Style Format) on any topic
covered in the seminar. You may select a topic on an issue or issues involved with any
variety of psychoanalytic theory, or choose to study an issue or issues in the application
of psychoanalytic theory to historical method, or critique a work of psychobiography or
psychohistory using both course texts and outside sources. For the last option, note that
you will not be writing a psychobiography or psychohistory but critiquing a book-length
example of it. You must select your topic in consultation with the instructor by
Thursday, September 22, at the latest. A full bibliography of sources is due by
Thursday, October 6. No drafts will be read by the instructor, but you are encouraged to
discuss the paper with me at any time. Class presentation of the research paper will take
place during the last three days of class, so you must be ready to discuss your completed
research in class beginning Tuesday, November 22. The paper is due on Thursday,
December 1, at the beginning of class
8/23, 25
8/23
8/30, 9/1
Drive Psychology
film: Young Dr. Freud (Axel Corti, 1977)
Drive Psychology
READING: Freud, Five Lectures, 9-28, 40-55
9/6, 8
Drive Psychology Revised
READING: Freud, New Introductory Lectures, 57-135
9/13-22
Dreams
READING: Freud, Five Lectures, 41-54; Freud, New, 7-30; Schnitzler
9/20, 22 film: Eyes Wide Shut (Stanley Kubrick, 1999)
9/22
9/27, 29
LAST DAY ON WHICH TO SELECT RESEARCH PAPER TOPIC
Ego Psychology
READING: Cocks and Crosby, 45-49; Erikson
9/13
10/4
film: Wild Strawberries (Ingmar Bergman, 1957)
Object Relations and Self Psychology
READING: Chodorow, vii-xvii, 3-54; Gardiner
10/6, 13
Psychoanalysis and the Sociology of Gender
READING: Chodorow, 57-99, 108-219
10/6
10/18, 20
RESEARCH PAPER BIBLIOGRAPHY DUE
Imaginary and Symbolic Objects of Desire
READING: Baxter
10/18 Film: Dr. Strangelove (Stanley Kubrick, 1964)
10/25, 27
Imaginary and Symbolic Objects of Desire
READING: Huntjens
10/25 film: Vertigo (Alfred Hitchcock, 1958)
11/1, 3
Psychoanalysis and History
READING: Cocks and Crosby, 3-44; Anderson and Winer, 225-36
11/8, 10
Psychobiography
READING: Cocks and Crosby, 83-130; Anderson and Winer, 47-60
11/15, 17
The American President’s Head
READING: Cocks, and Crosby, 132-211; Anderson and Winer, 135-77
11/22, 29, 12/1 Research Paper Presentations
12/1 RESEARCH PAPER DUE