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Study Guide for Final Exam
Honors Seminar: The Legacy of Psychoanalysis
1. Basic Outline of the Exam: The exam will include 4 brief identification-type
questions (define this term, give an example of this concept, etc) 4 short-answer
questions (one-paragraph, half-page questions), 2 full-page essay questions, and 1 threepart integrative essay question. Much of the exam will focus on the 2nd half of the course
but some of the questions will ask you to review material learned across the semester. It
is likely that the integrative essay question will ask you to examine case material or other
kinds of exemplars (a poem, painting, etc.) and consider psychoanalytic perspectives on
this material, from multiple theorists and authors we have considered through the
semester (Freud, Chodorow, and Ducat)
2. The following are a list of topics, questions, and issues that will be emphasized on the
exam:

You should be familiar with the movie Vertigo and some of the psychoanalytic
articles we read about. Be familiar with Emmanuel Berman’s comments on how
the movie represents a rescue fantasy that fails.

You should be familiar with the story of Rapunzel and the poem Rapunzel by
Anne Sexton and what psychoanalytic themes are present in each. Also be
familiar with the article we read on this subject, analyzing Sexton’s poem from a
Freudian and somewhat post-Freudian feminist stance. You should think about
how Rapunzel (the story and the poem) exemplifies some of the ideas we have
gone over in the latter part of the course on gender and sexual development (from
Chodorow and Ducat).

You should be familiar with what Bettelheim has to say about the “usefulness” of
fairy tales for children’s development. Why does he think fairy tales are
particularly “good” for children’s development over other kinds of children’s
literature? Also, be familiar with his psychoanalytic interpretations of Hansel and
Gretel and Little Red Riding Hood.

What, according to Freud are the implications of castration anxiety for boy’s
development and of penis envy for girl’s development and especially for girl’s
gender development? What are Chodorow’s and Ducat’s criticisms of the
concept of penis envy?

Be able to explain Chodorow’s basic theory for the development of characteristic
masculine traits in men and feminine traits in women. What fundamental family
dynamics account for these diverging pathways of gender development and what
are some of the many implications of these diverging pathways for how boys and
men experience themselves as gendered-male and how girls and women
experience themselves as gendered-female? Make sure you are familiar with
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Chodorow’s ideas about positional and personal identification and what roles
those kinds of identification play in gender development for boys and girls.

According to Ducat, what is womb envy, how does it develop, and what is the
relationship between femiphobia as a defense and womb envy, as the source of it.
What are the various ways in which men defend against or otherwise manage
their unconscious feelings of womb envy?

Be able to explain how military intervention, the welfare state and welfare reform,
environmentalism, and attitudes and policies concerning homosexuality, have all
become such extremely “gendered” issues in our political culture, according to
Ducat. In particular, how does femiphobia explain male voting behavior on each
of these issues?

You should be familiar with the various defense mechanisms we have discussed
across the semester (such as denial, repression, reaction formation, projective
identification, sublimation, displacement, etc.) and how you would exemplify
each of these defenses.