SCHOOL OF PHILOSOPHY AND ART HISTORY
2011-2012
Module Description, Reading List and Essay Questions
PSYCHOANALYSIS, SYMBOLISM AND THE UNCONSCIOUS (PY504-7-AU)
(15 credits) – Autumn Term only
Peter Dews
Office No. 5B.123
This is an MA level module, compulsory for students on the MA Philosophy and Psychoanalysis. MA
students from other courses may take this module as an option, provided they have the prior approval from
their department and the School’s Postgraduate Taught Director, Professor Neil Cox.
The School would like to encourage any student with a disability that needs to be taken into account to
contact the Student Support Office, either by email on disab@essex.ac.uk, or by telephoning internal ext.
2365 or 3444.
Assessment
This module is assessed by means of one extended essay (approx. 4,000 words). Unless notified otherwise
by the lecturer concerned, the due date is the first day of the summer term. See essay question list for
details regarding submission of essays.
There will also be an early assessment exercise in the autumn term which will be useful for acquiring
important skills and giving feedback on the qualities we are looking for in written work. It will take the
form of writing a short 2,000 word commentary. The assessment for this piece of work will be formative,
that is, it will not count towards the student's overall mark for the module, although students are required
to complete the commentary.
Students from outside the School of Philosophy and Art History who are taking this module as an option
should be aware that the submission procedures, other procedures and marking criteria employed will be
those of the School of Philosophy and Art History. To familiarise yourself with these please consult the
School of Philosophy and Art History’s Postgraduate Taught handbook.
Module Outline
One of the central claims made by Sigmund Freud, the founder of psychoanalysis, was that phenomena
such as dreams and neurotic symptoms, which had often been dismissed as meaningless, could be
understood in symbolic terms. According to Freud, these structures possess an existential meaning of
which the subject is usually unaware. This module begins by examining Freud`s theory of symbols,
especially in relation to dreams and symptoms, in the context of his thinking about the nature of the mind.
The module goes on to explore debates about the symbolic in subsequent psychoanalytic thinkers such as
Erich Fromm, Charles Rycroft and Melanie Klein. We will then compare the differing versions of the
claim that human beings inhabit a symbolic world or a symbolic order made by the neo-Kantian
philosopher Ernst Cassirer and the psychoanalyst Jacques Lacan. Finally, we will assess Lacan’s critique
of Klein. Throughout, we will be bearing in mind the following range of issues: the supposedly `archaic`
character of symbols; the connection between symbolism and the unconscious; the symbol as a means of
containing anxiety; the relation between the real, the imaginary and the symbolic; the tension between
symbolic thinking and modern rationality.
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Learning Outcomes
At the end of the module students should have:
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clear understanding of what is distinctive about Freud`s psychoanalytic theory of symbolism;
an awareness of the role which the interpretation of symbols plays in psychoanalytic treatment;
an understanding of the theoretical issues raised by contrasting psychoanalytic approaches to the
nature of symbols;
a sense of the development of psychoanalytic theory through the work of three major figures:
Freud, Klein and Lacan;
an ability to make connections between philosophical and psychoanalytical approaches to
symbolism;
the ability to pose critical questions concerning the philosophy of symbolism, and about the
relation between symbolic thinking and other forms of thinking;
a good understanding of the basics of Lacanian theory, and its differences from other traditions in
psychoanalysis.
By the end of the module, students should also have acquired a set of transferable skills, and in particular
be able to:
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define the task in which they are engaged and exclude what is irrelevant;
seek and organise the most relevant discussions and sources of information;
process a large volume of diverse and sometimes conflicting arguments;
compare and evaluate different arguments and assess the limitations of their own position or
procedure;
write and present verbally a succinct and precise account of positions, arguments, and their
presuppositions and implications;
be sensitive to the positions of others and communicate their own views in ways that are accessible to
them;
think 'laterally' and creatively - see interesting connections and possibilities and present these clearly
rather than as vague hunches;
maintain intellectual flexibility and revise their own position if shown wrong;
think critically and constructively.
Autumn Term
Week 1: Freshers’ Week
Week 2: Freud’s Theory of the Mind
Required reading: Sigmund Freud, ‘Formulations on the Two Principles of Mental Functioning’, in The
Standard Edition of the Complete Psychological Works of Sigmund Freud, vol. 12; Five Lectures on
Psychoanalysis’, Standard Edition, vol. 11; ‘An Outline of Psychoanalysis’, Standard Edition, vol. 23.
Further reading: Jonathan Lear, Freud (Routledge, 2005); Richard Wollheim, Freud (Fontana, 1991);
Joseph Sandler, et al., Freud’s Models of the Mind (Karnac 1997); Anthony Storr, Freud: A Very Short
Introduction (OUP, 2001).
Week 3: Freud’s Theory of Dream Symbolism
Required Reading: Freud: Introductory Lectures on Psychoanalysis, Standard Edition, vol. 15-16, chs 614; New Introductory Lectures on Psychoanalysis, ch. 29, Standard Edition, vol. 22.
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Further Reading: Lear, Freud, ch. 3 (‘The Interpretation of Dreams’); James Hopkins, ‘The Interpretation
of Dreams’, ch. 3 in Jerome Neu (ed.) The Cambridge Companion to Freud (CUP, 1991);
Week 4: Psychoanalytic Critiques of Freud’s Theory of Symbolism
Required Reading Freud: Erich Fromm, The Forgotten Language: An Introduction to the Understanding of
Dreams, Fairy Tales and Myths (London: Gollancz, 1952); Charles Rycroft, The Innocence of Dreams
(OUP, 1981)
Further Reading: C. G. Jung, ‘General Aspects of Dream Psychology’, in Jung, Dreams (Routledge and
Keagan Paul, 1982 – republished as an ARK paperback); Freud, ‘The Occurrence in Dreams of Material
from Fairy Tales’, Standard Edition, col. 12; Freud, ‘The Theme of the Three Caskets’, Standard
Edition.vol. 12; Bruno Bettelheim, ‘Jack and the Beanstalk’, in The Uses of Enchantment (Penguin, 1991),
Part II (‘In Fairy Land’); Adam Phillips, ‘In Your Dreams’ [interpreting ‘Jack and the Beanstalk’] at:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2007/dec/01/booksforchildrenandteenagers.theatre
Week 5: Melanie Klein and the move to ‘Object Relations’
Required Reading: Melanie Klein, ‘A Contribution of the Psychogenesis of Manic-Depressive States’ and
‘Mourning and its Relation to Manic-Depressive States’, in in Juliet Mitchell (ed.), The Selected Melanie
Klein (Peregrine, 1986).
Further Reading: Hanna Segal, Introduction to the Work of Melanie Klein (London: Heinemann, 1962);
Julia Kristeva, Melanie Klein (New York: Columbia University Press, 2002); Robert Hinshelwood, A
Dictionary of Kleinian Thouugh (London: Free Associations Press, 1989).
Week 6: Melanie Klein: The Death-Drive, Anxiety and the Genesis of Symbolism
Required Reading: Melanie Klein, ‘Early Stages of the Oedipus Complex’ and ‘The Importance of Symbol
Formation in the Development of the Ego’, in Juliet Mitchell (ed.), The Selected Melanie Klein (Peregrine,
1986).
Further reading: Hannah Segal, ‘Notes on Symbol Formation’, in The Work of Hannah Segal: A Kleinian
Approach to Clinical Practice (Free Association Books, 1986).
Week 7: Ernst Cassirer’s philosophy of symbolic forms
Required reading: Ernst Cassirer, Language and Myth (Dover, 1946), Cassirer. An Essay on Man:An
Introduction to a Philosophy of Human Culture (Yale University Press, 1944), chs 2-3, and 7-8.
Futher reading: Ernst Cassirer, The Philosophy of Symbolic Forms. Vol. II, Mythical Thought (Yale
University Press, 1955), Part I: ‘Myth as a Form of Thought’; Jürgen Habermas, ‘The Liberating Power of
Symbols’, in The Liberating Power of Symbols: Philosophical Essays (Polity Press, 2001); John Michael
Krois, Cassirer: Symbolic Forms and History (Yale University Press, 1987); Lucien Lévy-Bruhl, The
Notebooks on Primitive Mentality, (Blackwell, 1975).
Week 8: READING WEEK – no lecture/class unless notified otherwise by Peter Dews
Week 9: Introduction to Lacan: the ‘imaginary’
Required reading: Jacques Lacan, ‘The Mirror Stage as Formative of the I Function as Revealed in
Psychoanalytic Experience’; ‘The Function and Field of Speech and Language in Psychoanalysis:
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Introduction and Part I’, in Écrits: The First Complete Edition in English (New York, W. W. Norton,
2006).
Further reading: Alain Vanier, Lacan (Other Press, 2000); Elizabeth Grosz, Jacques Lacan: A Feminist
Introduction (Routledge, 1990); Macolm Bowie, Lacan (Fontana); Peter Dews, Logics of Disintegration
(Verso 2007), ch. 2 (‘Jacques Lacan: A Philosophical Rethinking of Freud’).
Week 10: Introduction to Lacan: the ‘symbolic’ and the ‘real’
Required Reading: Jacques Lacan, ‘The Function and Field of Speech and Language in Psychoanalysis’,
parts II and III.
Further reading: Juan-David Nasio, Five Lesson on the Psychoanalytic Theory of Lacan (SUNY Press,
1998); Peter Dews, ‘Imagination and the Symbolic: Castoriadis and Lacan’, Constellations, vol. 9, no. 4,
2002; Claude Lévi-Strauss, ‘The Efficacity of Symbols’ in Structural Anthropology (Penguin, 1972)
Week 11: Lacan’s critique of Klein
Required reading: Jacques Lacan, The Seminar of Jacques Lacan, vol. 1: Freud’s Papers on Technique
(1953-54) (Norton, 1988), chs VI and VII.
Further reading: Julia Kristeva, ‘The Immanence of Symbolism and its Degrees’, ch. XIII, and ‘Envy and
Gratitude of Lacan’, ch. X., section 4, in Julia Kristeva, Melanie Klein (Columbia University Press, 2001);
Bernard Burgone and Mary Sullivan (eds), The Klein-Lacan Dialogues (Rebus Press, 1997); Bruce Fink,
Richard Feldstein and Maire Jaanus (eds), Reading Seminars I and II (SUNY Press, 1996)
PREPARATORY READING
Those wishing to do some preparatory reading over the summer should read as much as possible of
Freud`s Introductory Lectures on Psychoanalysis.
SET TEXTS
Sigmund Freud, ‘Formulations on the Two Principles of Mental Functioning’, in The Standard Edition of
the Complete Psychological Works of Sigmund Freud (London: The Hogarth Press and the Institute of
Psychoanalysis, 1953-74), vol. 12; Five Lectures on Psychoanalysis’, Standard Edition, vol. 11; ‘An
Outline of Psychoanalysis’, Standard Edition, vol. 23; Introductory Lectures on Psychoanalysis, Standard
Edition, vol. 15-16, chs 6-14; New Introductory Lectures on Psychoanalysis, ch. 29, Standard Edition, vol.
22; ‘The Antithetical Meaning of Primal Words’, in Standard Edition, vol. 11; ‘The Occurrence in Dreams
of Material from Fairy Tales’, Standard Edition, col. 12; ‘The Theme of the Three Caskets’, Standard
Edition.vol. 12. [The Standard Edition was reprinted by Vintage in paperback format in 2001; various
other individual editions of these set texts are available.]
Ernst Cassirer, Language and Myth (Dover, 1946): An Essay on Man: An Introduction to a Philosophy of
Human Culture (Yale UP, 1944)
Erich Fromm, The Forgotten Language: An Introduction to the Understanding of Dreams, Fairy Tales
and Myths (London: Gollancz, 1952)
Melanie Klein, ‘A Contribution of the Psychogenesis of Manic-Depressive States’, ‘Mourning and its
Relation to Manic-Depressive States’ and ‘The Importance of Symbol Formation in the Development of
the Ego’, in Juliet Mitchell (ed.), The Selected Melanie Klein (Peregrine, 1986).
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Jacques Lacan, The Seminar of Jacques Lacan, vol. 1: Freud’s Papers on Technique (1953-54) (Norton,
1988), chs VI and VII; ‘The Function and Field of Speech and Language in Psychoanalysis’, in Écrits: the
first complete edition in English (New York: W. W. Norton, 2006).
Charles Rycroft, The Innocence of Dreams (Oxford: OUP, 1981)
FURTHER READING
Relevant further reading is listed for each week of the module, but the following may also be found
interesting and helpful:
Jessica Benjamin, ‘Beyond Doer and Done to: An Intersubjective View of Thirdness’, in Psychoanalytic
Quarterly, vol. 73, pp. 5-46 (available on PEP database) (for critical response to Lacan from the
contemporary ‘intersubjective’’ perspective)
Ernest Jones, ‘The Theory of Symbolism’, in Jones, Papers on Psychoanalysis (Baillière, Tindall and Cox,
1950)
Jacques Lacan, ‘In Memory of Ernest Jones: On his Theory of Symbolism’, in Jacques Lacan, Écrits: the
first complete edition in English (W.W. Norton, 2006)
Agnes Petocz, Freud, Psychoanalysis and Symbolism (CUP, 1999)
Charles Rycroft, ‘Is Freudian Symbolism a Myth’, in Psychoanalysis and Beyond (Hogarth Press, 1985);
Charles Rycroft, ‘Symbolism, Imagination and Biological Destiny’, in Viewpoints (Hogarth Press, 1991
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SUBMISSION OF COURSEWORK
The primary method of submission for all Philosophy postgraduate coursework is the ‘watermarked’ hard
copy, which must be submitted to 5B.109 (our Graduate Office), in duplicate, by the deadline stipulated.
To submit a ‘watermarked’ hard copy of your coursework you will first need to upload it to OCS (Online
Coursework Submission) and we recommend that you do this well in advance of the deadline for
submitting your watermarked hard copy. OCS can be reached through your ‘myStudy’ pages of ‘my
Essex’, or alternatively visit: https://courses.essex.ac.uk/ocs/. Help for students, including a ‘Quick Start
Guide’, is available from the OCS web site.
When submitting your watermarked hard copies please make sure they are either stapled or held together
by a paper clip with the ‘Graduate Essay Cover Sheet’ on top. Copies of the cover sheet are available from
5B.109, or from the School`s website at: http://www.essex.ac.uk/spah/. The guidance about the length of
the essay should not be departed from without the permission of the lecturer concerned. Students, with
valid extenuating circumstances, may request a short extension, but they must do so in advance and
complete the essay extension request section at the bottom of the Cover Sheet.
WORD COUNT: A word count must be displayed at the end of your essay
ESSAY QUESTIONS
Deadline:
4.00 pm, Monday 16 January, 2012
MA Students are encouraged to set their own question, after consultation with the module teacher.
However, for those who prefer, one of the following questions may be attempted.
1) Critically evaluate Freud’s approach to discovering the unconscious meaning of a dream.
2) How convincing is the psychoanalytic claim that the symbolism of dreams and the symbolism of myth
and folktale have a common source in the psyche?
3) Explain and assess Melanie Klein’s innovations in psychoanalytic theory, compared to the views of
Freud.
4) What are the strengths and weaknesses of Melanie Klein’s account of the genesis of symbolism?
5) Compare Ernst Cassirer’s theory of symbolism with that of any psychoanalytical writer you have
studied for this module.
6) To what extent can the language of symbols be regarded as an ‘archaic’ language?
7) Examine Lacan’s conception of the relation between the ‘imaginary’ and the ‘symbolic’.
8) To what extent are human subjects unconsciously determined by a ‘symbolic order’?
9) ‘…the early development of psychoanalysis…expresses in fact nothing less than the recreation of
human meaning in an arid period of scientism…’ (Lacan) How far do you agree?
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