PSYCHOANALYSIS AND CULTURAL STUDIES (2 credits)
Steven Botticelli, Ph.D. and Katie Gentile, Ph.D.
Twenty-first century psychoanalysis draws greatly on cultural theory—philosophy,
feminism, queer theory, literary studies, postcolonial studies—yet candidates are rarely
directly exposed to such work in their training. This class begins to address that gap by
pairing essays by cultural theorists with psychoanalytic articles, allowing students to
explore the fresh intellectual and clinical possibilities that can ensue when we read and
think about cultural studies alongside clinical psychoanalysis. We also include work
from sociology, which while less directly influential on contemporary psychoanalysis
offers an illuminating vantage point on matters of interest to us.
Each class will aim to create a dialogue between two authors, on topics of relevance to
contemporary analysts: What would this theorist, and this analyst, have to say to each
other? How would this author agree with, qualify, expand upon, challenge, argue with
what the other author has to say? Our objective in these exercises is to broaden the
context for thinking about how we approach our work as analysts.
The course does not attempt a comprehensive or systematic survey of the huge body of
work that comprises cultural studies but rather offers exposure to a sample of interesting
and influential work by theorists in various fields that has resonance with topics and
controversies within psychoanalysis.
Interpretation
Sontag, Susan, (1982) Against interpretation. In A Susan Sontag Reader. New York:
Farrar Strauss and Giroux, pp.95-104.
Levenson, Edgar (1996), The politics of interpretation. Contemp. Psychoanal., 32:631648.
The Nature and Role of the Therapy Relationship
Bellah, et. al. (1985) Reaching out. In Habits of the Heart: Individualism and
Commitment in American Life. New York: Harper and Row, pp. 113-141.
Botticelli, Steven (2012) Weak ties, slight claims: The therapy relationship in an era of
reduced expectations. Contemp. Psychoanal., 48: 563-576.
Frame
Goffman, E. (1974) Breaking frame. Frame Analysis: An Essay on the Organization of
Experience. Lebanon, NH: Northeastern University Press. Pp. 345-377.
Langs, R. (1975), The therapeutic relationship and deviations in technique. International
J. of Psychoanal. Psychotherapy. 4:106-141.
Therapeutic assumptions about the good life
Ahmed, S. (2010) Killing joy: Feminism and the history of happiness. Signs, 35 (3): 571594.
Deutsch, H. (1989) On satisfaction, happiness and ecstasy. International Journal of
Psychoanal. 70:715-723
Regarding the Other
Said, Edward (1978) Introduction. In Orientalism. NY: Vintage, pp. 1-30.
Suchet, Melanie (2010) Face to face. Psychoanal. Dial., 20: 158-171.
Witnessing as Othering
Cornell, D. (2010). The ethical affirmation of human rights: Gayatri Spivak’s
intervention. In R. C. Morris (Ed.) Reflections on the history of an idea: Can the
subaltern speak? New York: Columbia University Press. Pp. 100-114.
Gentile, K. (2013). Bearing the cultural to engage in a process of witnessing.
Psychoanalytic Psychotherapy.
Sexuality
Foucault, Michel (1976) The repressive hypothesis. In The History of Sexuality Vol. 1.
New York: Vintage, pp. 15-49.
Davies, J. (2004), Love in the afternoon: A relational reconsideration of desire and dread
in the countertransference. Psychoanal. Dial., 4: 153-170.
Power/Authority
Foucault, Michel (1961), The birth of the asylum. In Madness and Civilization: A
History of Insanity in the Age of Reason. New York: Vintage. Pp. 241-278.
Hoffman, Irwin, (1996), The intimate and ironic authority of the psychoanalyst’s
presence. Psychoanal. Quarterly, 65: 102-136.
Interpellation
Althusser, Louis (1969) Ideology and ideological state apparatuses. In Lenin and
Philosophy and Other Essays. NY: Monthly Review Press. Pp. 127-186.
Corbett, Ken (2009) Faggot= loser: Phallic narcissism as a defense. In
Boyhoods:Rethinking Masculinities. Pp. 173-207.
Intersectionality
Collins, P. H. (1990). Black feminist thought in the matrix of domination. In Black
feminist thought: Knowledge, consciousness and the politics of empowerment, pp. 221238. New York: Routledge.
Saketopoulou, A. (2011). Minding the gap: Intersections between gender, race, and class
in work with gender variant children. Psychoanalytic Dialogues, Vol 21(2): 192-209.
Loss/Trauma and Its Aftermath
Love, Heather (2007), Introduction. In Feeling Backward: Loss and the Politics of Queer
History. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press. pp. 1-30.
Gerson, Samuel (2009), When the third is dead: Memory, mourning and witnessing in the
aftermath of the Holocaust. International J. of Psychoanal., 90: 1341-1357.
Gender
Butler, J. (1990), Gender Trouble. New York: Routledge. Pp.vii-xii, 128-149.
Goldner, V. (1991) Toward a critical relational theory of gender. Psychoanal. Dial., 1:
249-272.
Integrating neuroscience
Pitts-Taylor, V. (2010). The plastic brain: Neoliberalism and the neuronal self. Health:
An interdisciplinary journal for the social study of health, illness, and medicine, 14 (6):
635-652.
Koehler, B. (2011). Psychoanalysis and neuroscience in dialogue: Commentary on paper
by Arnold H. Modell. Psychoanalytic Dialogues, 21 (3): 303-319.
Changing
Bhabha, H. (1994). How newness enters the world: Postmodern space, postcolonial times
and the trials of cultural translation. In The Location of Culture, London: Routledge. Pp.
212-235.
Bromberg, P. (1998), Staying the same while changing: Reflections on clinical judgment.
Psychoanal. Dial., 8: 225-236.
Bodies
Baudrillard , J. (2005). The finest consumer object: The body. In M. Fraser & M. Greco
(eds.), The Body: A Reader. New York: Routledge. Pp. 277-282.
Knoblauch, S. (1996). The play and interplay of passionate experience: Multiple
organizations of desire. Gender & Psychoanalysis, 1(3): 323-344.