The purpose of this course is to lay out central elements of psychoanalytic theory and practice in a way that should be comprehensible to interested parties, without focusing on the theoretical and technical distinctions among different schools of analytic thought that are commonly the focus of teaching in the field. At the same time, we will be focused on the qualities of psychoanalytic theory and practice that separate it from the so-called “evidence-based” approaches to mental health treatment & diagnosis that are more respected in academic institutions today.

 

Objectives:

After attending this class, students will be able to

a. Clarify the ways in which psychoanalytic thinking about the nature of mind addresses differences between mental and somatic experience.

b. Describe the problematics of lived experience as something that can be reliably described.

c. Describe the complicated ways in which the memory and the impingement of the larger world can influence the formation of subjectivity.

d. Define ways in which self-understanding complicates the perception and description of subjective experience.

e. Delineate the role of group identification in the development of the sense of self.

f. Describe the inevitability of group identification as a central factor in mental organization.

g. Be able to describe how the psychological symptom ALWAYS has associations to a broad range of experience: interpersonal, cultural, somatic.

h. Delineate why addressing the symptom requires an effort to make those associations available to the patient, rather than simply eradicating the symptom itself.

i. Articulate that this process may be dramatically different with different people, rather than a straightforward application of a given “analytic” technique.

j. Delineate the complications inherent in any kind of enlightenment by the therapist/analyst

k. Describe the ideological assumptions present in any conceptualization of the therapeutic

l. Articulate the differences between specifically “analytic” as opposed to “therapeutic” interventions by the therapist/analyst.

m. Be able to clarify how algorithmic thinking is always potentially problematic for analytic work, and identify algorithmic processes as they arise.

n. Critically address specific problems in the use of algorithmic thinking in the clinical setting.

 

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