History/CHID 314: Freud and the Psychoanalytic Revolution in
Historical Perspective,
Fall, 2010
T/Th 11:30-1:20
Low 205
Friday Sections
Professor John Toews
Smith 312A
toews@u.washington.edu
Office Hours:
Tuesday 1:30-3:30
Co-Instructor:
Stacey Moran
smoran@u.washington.edu
The Aim of the Course is to develop an understanding of Freudian
Psychoanalysis as a specific, culturally and historically defined way of thinking
about the self and its relations with and to others. During the first half of the
course we will examine the construction and transformation of Freudian theory in
the context of the crisis of liberal culture in central Europe between 1870 and
1939. Attention will be paid to parallel developments in literature, the arts,
philosophy and social theory in order to situate Freud in the culture of
"modernism". The second half of the course will be focused on the
transformation of Freudian theory after World War I and the divergent receptions
of psychoanalysis among Freud's followers and critics. The "heresies" of Adler
and Jung, and the movements they spawned will be examined, as well as the
transformative impact of cultural migration in the context of the Fascist and Cold
War eras. The course will conclude with consideration of the impact of French
post-structuralist theory and Anglo-American cultural studies on the historical
fate of psychoanalysis at the turn of our century.
One of the threads we will try to draw through all of this material is that of the
gendered self-- of the construction of masculine and feminine identities. But we
will also examine questions of class, ethnicity, religion and national political
culture as they relate to the creation and reception of Freudian conceptions of
self formation.
Format: The two weekly classes will be a mix of lecture and discussion. Usually
the final 30 minutes or so will be set aside specifically for discussion of questions
raised by the readings, so it is important that you complete the assigned
readings before class.. Friday sections will engage in more focused textual
analysis and discuss the questions and/or quotations that you have developed in
your weekly written QandQ or Response Paper assignments.
COURSE REQUIREMENTS
1) Participation (10%): This involves : 1) attentive attendance and engagement
at lecture/discussions and active participation in sections. If you cannot
attend a lecture you should excuse yourself in advance via e-mail. There will
be a check-in class list at every scheduled class, and I will occasionally (3-5
2
times in the course of the term) ask for written responses to questions in
class. Unexcused absences will lower your participation grade.
2) Weekly Questions and Quotations for Discussion (QandQ) or Response
Papers (25%): These assignments must be submitted before or at the very
beginning of your Friday Sections. Late submissions will be penalized (i.e.
they will receive 2 out of a possible 4 points—If you miss or come late to
the section in order to complete the assignment- you will be penalized for
late submission ). The most important function of the weekly assignment is to
guide your engagement for the discussions. The first response paper will be due
on the Friday of the first full week of the term. There will be a total of 9 weekly
assignments. They will be graded as satisfactory, satisfactory-plus and
unsatisfactory. A Satisfactory is worth 4 points; satisfactory-plus adds a bonus
point that can be applied to final calculations of your course grade. An
unsatisfactory assignment must be redone.
Response papers should be 2-3 double-spaced typed pages in length.
Guidelines for the response papers (you will receive more advice during
sections the first week of the course):
The response papers should have three components:
1. A brief summary of the general contents of the week’s reading. What
is the reading about? (1 paragraph—at most ½ of a page)
2. An analysis of one theme or argument in the readings that you found
particularly striking, disturbing or confusing. (2 paragraphs- the heart
of your response paper and the basis for questions you may want to
bring to your section.) Make sure you provide evidence for your
assertions with specific references to the text(s).
3. Critical reflection: Attempt a brief assessment of the ideas or
problems analyzed in section 2. Think about the ways that
perspectives present in the text might be peculiarly bound to their
own time and culture…or not. (1 paragraph)
The Questions and Quotations (QandQ) assignment should be structured in this
fashion:
1) Formulate three questions that arise from the reading which you would
like to discuss in your section. The questions should raise issues that
genuinely puzzle or disturb you and you should provide a brief
comment about why you think each question is important for
understanding the reading.
2) Cite three short passages from the reading that you found difficult and/or
puzzling. Briefly comment on why the passages seemed difficult
and/or puzzling to you.
On occasion the weekly assignment may involve a request to analyze a
particular section of the text or to a respond to specific questions raised by the
instructors. It could also take the form of a research assignment- a web search
on a specific issue for example.
3
QandQ’s and Response Papers or other weekly assignments will constitute
25% of your final grade
No response papers or QandQ’s are required in the opening week (you will
write a short introductory account of your relations, up to this point, with
Freud and Psychoanalysis), Week 5 (Midterm) November 26 ( Thanksgiving
Weekend) or the last week.
For the term: 2 Response Papers and 5 QandQs
3 ) Research/Writing Project. 8-10 page paper or its equivalent
(25% of final grade)
Topics should be approved by the instructor or teaching assistant. You should
use your response papers and QandQs in part to raise and explore questions
you might think of pursuing in a research paper. Non-traditional “papers”, i.e.
visual or musical representations, animations or performances are acceptable,
but must be accompanied by a prose commentary/explanation.
Deadlines.:
A typed proposal of one or two paragraphs is due on the Tuesday before
Thanksgiving (November 23). (This proposal constitutes 20% of your Research
paper grade - i.e. 5% of your total course grade)
Short Update via email of your research project is due at end of 9th week.
Final draft of the Term Paper is due at the scheduled time of the Final
Examination (December 15 4:30 P.M.)
Possible Types of Topics.
1) Relations between text and context. You might want to pursue questions that
attempt to illuminate the texts by relating certain elements in them to conditions
or events outside the text.
2) Take up a controversial theme treated in the texts of Freud or his followers
that has a strong contemporary resonance (e.g. views of women and femininity,
race and ethnic identity, autonomy and self-creation) and assess their claims in
historical context.
3) Analyze a later historical interpretation or appropriation of Freud (i.e. by
Jung, Lacan, Wilhelm Reich, Juliet Mitchell, Melanie Klein etc., or
representations of Freud or Psychoanalysis in films, visual art, music, or
literature and provide a critical historical assessment in the light of your own
reading of the original Freudian texts in their original historical context..
Other kinds of questions and topics will be suggested throughout the term.
Please be sure to talk with me or the instructional assistant if you have any
questions about various assignments. Don’t begin your research paper without
having your topic approved.
4. Tests (40%)
The mid-term (20%) November 5 : a one hour quiz of focused, short
answer questions based on the materials in the lectures
4
The Final Exam (20%) December 15 a one hour quiz of focused, short
answer questions based on the lectures of the 2 nd half of the course.
Study questions will be distributed a few days in advance of the tests
Required Readings:
The Following Books have been ordered into the University Bookstore
Peter Gay, editor, The Freud Reader ( Norton)
Eli Zaretsky, Secrets of the Soul: A Social and Cultural History of
Psychoanalysis (Knopf)
Carl Schorske, Fin-de-Siecle Vienna (Vintage) (This book will be used primarily
as reading for the modernist context ( Weeks 4 and 5). I will put the relevant
readings on line—but it’s a classic and easily available on Amazon- so you might
want to purchase it.
A Course Reader with a selection of shorter readings is available on your MyUW
course page. You can download the readings and have them printed out as a
bound reader at RAMS Copy on the Ave, or access them week by week—there
are separate links to each reading.
Schedule of meetings
Thursday, September 30
Introduction: Freud in his Time and for our Time
Assignment “Freud and Me”
Write a brief narrative about your personal/historical relations to Freud and/or
psychoanalysis .i.e. What kind of knowledge and experience of Freud and/or
Psychoanalysis do you bring with you into the class? What kinds of expectations
do you have?
Bring your narrative to Friday Sections for discussion
WEEK 1: The Origins of Psychoanalysis :The narrative of
Discovery and its Scientific and Medical Contexts 1876-1896
Tuesday: October 5
Freud's scientific and medical apprenticeship
Freud, "An Autobiographical Study", Freud Reader. 3-24.
Zaretsky, Secrets of the Soul, Introduction, pp.3-11 Chapter 1: 21-30
Thursday October 7
The Cause and Cure of the Neuroses: Freud's Voyage of Discovery 18851896
Required Readings:
From the Freud Reader
Freud: "Preface to Bernheim", pp. 45-48
"Charcot". 48-55.
"Draft B", 55-60
5
Joseph Breuer:" Anna O" , 60-78
Freud: "Katharina", 78-86.
"Draft K", 89-96
"The Aetiology of Hysteria", 96-111
Response Paper for Friday sections—On Freud’s early theory of Hysteria
WEEK 2: Crisis and Breakthrough: The Construction of the
Foundations of Psychoanalysis 1896-1905.
Tuesday October 12 : The Crisis of 1896 and the Emergence of a New
Concept of the Self.
Required Readings:
Background Reading for the week: Zaretsky, Chapter 1, pp. 15-40
Freud: "Letters to Fliess", Freud Reader, 111-116
"The Interpretation of Dreams" and " On Dreams", Freud Reader,
129-172.
Thursday, October 14: Sexuality in the Formation and Deformation of the
Self
Required Readings:
“Three Essays on the Theory of Sexuality”, Freud Reader 239-293
QandQ for Friday Sections: On Freud’s theory of the meaning of dreams and/or
the relationship between self-formation and stages in psycho-sexual
development.
Week 3 : Models of Mind and Models of Culture: The
Development of Freudian Theory up to World War I.
Tuesday, October 19 : Models of Mind. The Oedipus Complex as the key
to the individual life History. Changing Views of Gender Formation and
Subjectivity
Required Readings:
Background Reading for the Week: Zaretsky, Chapter 2, pp.41-63.
“ Fragment of an Analysis of a Case of Hysteria” (Dora) Freud
Reader, 172-239 and
Either:
“Notes Upon a Case of Obsessional Neurosis” (Rat-Man), Freud
Reader, 309-350.
Or
“Leonardo Da Vinci and a Memory of His Childhood,” Freud
Reader, 443-481.
6
Thursday October 21:.
Models of Culture: The Oedipus Complex as the Key to Cultural
Emergence and Development
Required Readings:
“Obsessive Acts and Religious Practices”. Freud Reader, 429-436.
"Totem and Taboo" Freud Reader , 481-513
Friday Sections: Response Papers: On Freud’s new models of the Psyche
and Culture after 1900
WEEK 4 :The Historical Matrix of Psychoanalysis
Tuesday: October 26: Personal and Ethnic Contexts
a) The Problem of Contextual Determination: What kind of a historical life
experience did this theory make meaningful?.
b) Personal issues of identity, autonomy and masculinity
c) Psychoanalysis as a response to Jewish Emancipation, Assimilation
and Exclusion. The Problem of the father.
Required Reading:
Schorske:”Politics and Patricide in Freud’s Interpretation of Dreams” in
Schorske, Fin-de-siecle Vienna, : Politics and Culture, Chapter 4., Available
OnLine in COURSE READER
Thursday October 28: Psychoanalysis as a response to the Crisis of
Bourgeois Liberalism in Central Europe;
Required Reading:
Schorske;”Politics in a New Key: An Austrian Tryptych” (Chapter 3)
“The Ringstrasse, Its Critics and the Birth of Urban Modernism”
(Chapter 2) (Optional: in Reader Appendix)
Also: review Zaretsky’s comments on social context i.e. on “The Second
Industrial revolution” ,in Chapters 1 and 2 , and look at The section on “Fordism”
in Chapter 6.: 138-146
Friday Sections: QandQ The social and political implications of Freud’s
“discovery” or “creation” of psychoanalysis in 1900
WEEK 5: The Intellectual Relations of Psychoanalysis: Parallels
and Interconnections with Philosophy, Literature, The Visual
Arts and Music
Tuesday November 2: Freud, Philosophy and Literature
a) Freud and Philosophy: Freud as a Philosopher
Required Reading: Wittgenstein: “Conversations on Freud”,
Selections from Lou Andreas Salome. The Freud Journal
7
Letter to Werner Achelis
All in COURSE READER
“The Question of Weltanschauung”, Freud Reader, 783-796
b) Freud and the Literary Imagination. Freud as a Man of Literature: The
Case History as a Modernist Novella
Required Reading:
"Creative Writers and Day-Dreaming"(1907), Freud Reader,
436-44.
"The Theme of the Three Caskets",(1913) in Freud
Reader,514-522
Schorske: “Politics and the Psyche: Schnitzler and
Hoffmansthal” (Chapter 1) (Optional- in COURSE READER
Distribution of Study Questions for the Midterm.
Thursday: November 4: Freud, Visual and Musical Art.
a) The Visual Arts. Freud, Klimt and Kokoschka
Required Reading:
"The Moses of Michelangelo," in Freud Reader, 522-539.
Schorske:”Gustav Klimt: Painting and the Crisis of the Liberal Ego”
(Chapter 5). In COURSE READER
b) Freud and Musical Modernism in Vienna: (Arnold Schoenberg and
Gustav Mahler)
Required Reading:
Schorske: “Explosion in the Garden: Kokoschka and Schoenberg”
(Chapter 7) (optional- In COURSE READER appendix))
Friday November 5: Mid-term Test
No Response Paper or QandQ this week
Week 6 The Transformation of Freudian Theory After the War
Tuesday, November 9: The Revisions of the Psychic Model after the War:
Death Instinct, Superego and ID
Background Reading for the Week: Zaretsky, all of Chap. 5, and Chapter 7,
pp. 163-174
Required Reading:
Freud: Selections from " On Narcissism", “Mourning and Melancholia”,
“Beyond the Pleasure Principle", “ The Ego and the Id", in Freud Reader,
545-562, 584-589,594-626, 628-658.
Thursday November 11: Veterans Day holiday
Friday Sections: QandQ
8
Tuesday: November 16 : Changing Models of History and Culture
Required Readings: Freud: “Group Psychology and the Analysis of the
Ego”,“The Future of An Illusion". “ Civilization and its Discontents", Freud Reader
, 626-628, 685-772
WEEK 7 : The Development of the Psychoanalytic Movement
and the Heresies of Adler and Jung. Ego Psychology and
Mythical Me
Thursday November 18 : Adler and Jung
a) The Viennese School and the Defection of Alfred Adler
Required Reading:
Zaretsky, Chapters 3 and 4 (64-105; 91-105)
Russell Jacoby, from Social Amnesia ,"Revisionism: The Repression of a
Theory" COURSE READER
Freud, “The Question of Lay Analysis (Postscript)” Freud Reader, 678-685
b) Freud and Jung: Myth and the Reconstruction of Meaning
Required Reading:
Carl Gustav Jung: selections from Two Essays in Analytical Psychology,
in COURSE READER
Friday November 19 Sections: QandQ on the Tuesday Freud readings
Week 8: Psychoanalysis, Feminine Psychology and Feminism
Tuesday , November 23
a) Freud, Women and Feminine Psychology in the 1920s.
Required Reading:
Freud: “ Psychical Consequences of the Anatomical
Distinction between the Sexes” Freud Reader, 670-678
b) Woman Analysts and Freudian Feminism: Klein, Deutsch
and Horney
Required Reading:
Karen Horney, Three Essays from Feminine Psychology
“The Flight from Womanhood”
“The Dread of Woman”
“The Denial of the Vagina” (in COURSE READER)
Thursday November 25 and Friday November 26 : Thanksgiving Holiday
9
Week 9: The Divided International Movement after 1920
Tuesday November 30: Lost in Translation?:The Migration of
Psychoanalysis to Britain and America: Object Relations Theory, NeoFreudian Revisionism and Ego Psychology
Required Reading:
For the Week: Zaretsky. Chapters 6-11.
Thursday December 2
Beyond the Tragic Vision: The Freudian Left
From Reich to Marcuse
a) The Freudian Left in the 1920s: Expressionist Radicals and
Freudo-Marxists Required Reading:
Wilhelm Reich, Selections from The Sexual Revolution in
COURSE READER
b) Reich and Marcuse in America 1950s to 1968
Required Reading: Hebert Marcuse, Selections from Eros and
Civilization in COURSE READER
Friday Sections: QandQ comparing Reich and Marcuse
WEEK X: French Freud: The Lacanian School and the “Return”
to Freud.
Tuesday: December 7: Lacan and French Freud
a) Jacques Lacan and the Freudian Subject:
b) Lacanian Feminism
Required Readings:
For the week: Zaretsky, Chapter. 12 and Epilogue
Jacques Lacan, “The Meaning of the Phallus” in COURSE
READER
Thursday December 9
Psychoanalysis Today
a) Outside the Euro-American Sphere: The Triumphs of Psychoanalysis in
Argentina
b) Which Freud is Dead, Which is Living?
Required Reading:
Mariano Plotkin: “Introduction” from Freud in the Pampas. COURSE READER
Internet pieces on Lacan in Argentina (Optional)
“Psychoanalysis in Argentina: Something to Talk About” by Rachel Randall
“Lacan or Weltanschauung?” in Larval Subjects
“Freud is/is not Dead” Newsweek. March 27, 2006,, 43-47 in COURSE
READER
FRIDAY SECTIONS: Distribution of Study Questions for Final Quiz (December 15 at 4:30)
10