2009 Course Handbook
PSY361: Philosophy of Psychoanalysis
Freud famously said psychoanalysis enabled us to work, love and play with a minimum of conflict. This course addresses what gets in the way of our being able to do that. Theoretical but quite practical, the course is relevant to mainstream psychology and to everyday life. Psychoanalysis has much to offer concerning our relation to our own feelings, memories, impulses and desires - issues focal to rumination, reflection, mindfulness and post-traumatic distress -- not to mention the kind of everyday discontent that makes people repeat old mistakes or self-medicate to forget them. We explore how rage can reflect hidden ideals. We address the complexities of gender identity and interpersonal attraction. We use psychoanalysis to reveal how the hidden currents in relationships of lust, love and power can derail those relationships, and to show us how to discern and handle some of those hidden currents. So the course introduces students to psychoanalysis as a portable science that promotes critical clarity in seeing what assumptions a theory (or person) is making. The course is intended to encourage students to ask questions in a way that opens up possibilities for discovery. The course moves from a foundation in Freud (the nature of unconscious processes, drives and affects, morality, and defence) to cover an array of post-Freudian perspectives, including: Lacan, object relations theory, self-psychology, and relational psychoanalysis. Some of the tensions between different genres of psychoanalysis will also be considered by laying bare the different assumptions made by different schools about the role of the body, emotion and our relationships to others in human development.
| Credit Points: | 4 |
| Contact Hours: | 3 |
| When Offered: | D1 - Day; Offered in the first half-year |
| Staff Contact: | Dr Doris McIlwain |
| Prerequisites: | 40cp |
| Corequisites: | |
| NCCWs: | PHIL361 |
| Unit Designations: | Science |
| Assessed As: | Graded |
| Offered By: |
Department of Psychology |
Timetable Information
For unit timetable information please visit the Timetables@Macquarie Website.