MSc in Theoretical Psychoanalytic Studies

Essential Issues in Psychoanalysis
Autumn Term 2008-2009
Coordinator: Dr Rachel Blass

Aim: This unit aims to address central concerns of psychoanalytic theory and practice. The first two seminars will explore the question of what is the basic nature of psychoanalysis and the obstacles (emotional and conceptual) facing attempts to study this question. This will be followed by two seminars offering a historical context to psychoanalytic theories, which should provide the student with a common starting point and a basic familiarity with the forms psychoanalysis has taken in the course of its evolution. In each of the next six seminars we will examine one essential psychoanalytic issue. Included are clinical issues (the aims of psychoanalysis and how change occurs psychoanalytically), issues of everyday life and culture (sex, love & sublimation vs. narcissism, and hate, masochism and moral conscience) and finally the issue of knowledge (psychoanalysis vs. religion and the possibility of psychoanalytic research).

Objective: The overall intention of this series is to give the student the opportunity to encounter and contend with some of the fundamental issues that concern psychoanalysis and which make it such a compelling and important approach to the contemporary understanding of human existence and its potential transformation.

WHAT IS PSYCHOANALYSIS?  

Seminars 1& 2

THE DEVELOPMENT OF PSYCHOANALYSIS
Saturday 27 th October 11.15-12.45pm and 1.45-3.15pm

Professor Peter Fonagy

Essential Reading :

Fonagy, P., Target, M., Steele, M. & Gerber, A. (1995). Psychoanalytic perspectives on developmental psychology. In Cicchetti, D. & Cohen, D. (eds.) Developmental Psychopathology (vol. I): Theory and Methods . New Haven : Yale University Press. (pp. 504-554) Folder

Fonagy, P. & Target, M. (2002) Psychoanalytic Theories: Perspectives from Developmental Psychopathology. Whurr Publishers, London & Philadelphia . Book Available in office .

Seminars 3 & 4

"WHAT IS PSYCHOANALYSIS" AND THE OBSTACLES FACING THE STUDENT OF PSYCHOANALYSIS

Friday 3rd October 2.15-3.45 & 4.00-5.30pm

Dr Rachel Blass

Reading :

Freud, S. (1917). A difficulty in the path of psycho-analysis. SE XVII , pp.135-144.

Freud, S. (1914) On the History if the Psychoanalytic Movement SE XIV pp.7-66

CLINICAL ISSUES  

Seminar 5

THE AIMS OF PSYCHOANALYSIS

Friday 10th October 2.15-3.45pm

Dr Rachel Blass 

Reading :

Sandler, J. & Dreher, A. U. (1996) What Do Psychoanalysts Want? London : Routledge pp.11-22, 97-123

Seminar 6

ON THE PROCESS OF PSYCHOANALYTIC CHANGE

Friday 17th October 2.15-3.45pm

Dr Rachel Blass

Reading :

Strachey, J. (1934). The nature of the therapeutic action of psycho-analysis. International Journal of Psychoanalysis , 15:127-159.

PSYCHOANALYSIS IN LIFE AND CULTURE 

Seminar 7

SEX, LOVE AND SUBLIMATION, VS. NARCISSISM

Saturday 18th October 9.30 - 11.00am

Dr Rachel Blass

Reading :

Freud, S. (1910). Wild psychoanalysis, SE X, pp. 219-228

Freud, S. (1910). Leonardo Da Vinci and a Memory of his Childhood , SE X . (especially pp. 63-81 and 199-137).

Lasch, C. (1980). (selection from) The Culture of Narcissism . New York : Norton. pp. 31-51, 237-249.

Rosenfeld, H. (1964). On the psychopathology of narcissism: A clinical approach. International Journal of Psychoanalysis 45: 332-337.

Seminar 8

HATE, VIOLENCE, MASOCHISM, AND MORAL CONSCIENCE

Saturday 1st November 9.30 - 11.00am

Dr Rachel Blass

Reading :

Freud, S. (1930) Civilization and its Discontents , SE XXI pp. 108-145

Klein, M. (1940). Mourning and its relation to Manic-depressive states , International Journal of Psychoanalysis, 21:125-153

THE MEANING AND VALUE OF PSYCHOANALYTIC KNOWLEDGE

Seminar 9

PSYCHOANALYSIS AND RELIGION

Friday 14th November 2.45 – 3.45pm

Dr Rachel Blass

Reading :

Eigen, M. (1998) The Psychoanalytic Mystic . London : Free Association, pp. 29-43

Freud, S. (1933) The question of a Weltanschauung , SE XXII , pp. 160-172 (until top of page)

Freud S (1939) Moses and Monotheism: Three essays . SE XXIII. pp.103-137 (especially 127-132)

Optional reading :

Blass, R. B. (2004). Beyond illusion: psychoanalysis and the question of religious truth. International Journal of Psychoanalysis . 85: 615-634.

Freud S (1927). The Future of an Illusion . SE XXI

Seminar 10

ON THE VALUE OF PSYCHOANALYTIC RESEARCH - EMPIRICAL AND CONCEPTUAL

Saturday 15th November 1.45 - 3.15pm

Dr Rachel Blass

Reading :

Wallerstein, R. S. (1988) Psychoanalysis, Psychoanalytic Science, and Psychoanalytic Research -1986. Journal of the American Psychoanalytic Association 36: 3-30

Dreher, A. U. (2000) Foundations for Conceptual Research in Psychoanalysis, Psychoanalytic Monograph 4, Monograph Series of The Psychoanalysis Unit of University College, London and The Anna Freud Centre, London London: Karnac Books

Other reading lists

This page last modified 18 October, 2008 by Sophie Bennett