The Site For Contemporary
Psychoanalysis
Curriculum 2013-4
London Campus
Freud: The Long and the short of it
Kirsty Hall and Val Parks, October 12th – December 14th 2013
Kirsty (first 5 weeks): Freud wrote some very lengthy texts and some
extremely short ones. The Interpretation of Dreams and the essay “On
Negation” are two good examples. I will reflect the variation in my selection of
texts, The Rat Man and Inhibitions Symptoms and Anxiety and then two very
short ones.
Background Reading
Some trainees are steeped in Freud and others may have read relatively little.
By the end of the training it would be reasonable to expect that most trainees
will have read widely amongst Freud’s writings. I would not wish to be
prescriptive. There much to be said for just dipping into his work. Other texts
that are of interest are:
Back to Freud’s Texts: Making Silent Documents Speak
I. Grubrich-Simitis A detailed account of how Freud wrote and revised his
texts.
Early Freud and Late Freud: Reading Anew Studies on Hysteria and Moses
and Monotheism I. Grubrich-Simitis. A close reading of both an early and a
late text
Any Patrick Mahony analysis of Freud’s case studies. He has written about
The Wolf Man, The Rat Man and Dora.
Any one of a number of biographies of Freud.
Freud’s Letters to Fliess A fascinating insight into Freud’s early theories and
their influence on his later better-known work.
Paul Verhaeghe’s Love in a Time of Loneliness: Three Essays on Drive and
Desire is an excellent and witty companion read if you are interested in
studying Freud’s problematic but nevertheless in some respects foundational
Three Essays on the Theory of Sexuality.
Turning to the teaching:
Week 1: The Rat Man offers Freud’s analysis and understanding of
Obsessional Neurosis. In session one we will look at the theory Freud is
expounding in this paper.
Week 2: Using the same text as in the previous week, we will ask ourselves
how The Rat Man can be used in clinical practice. Trainees will be asked to
provide short presentations to illustrate and examine this theme.
Week 3: Freud’s paper entitled Inhibitions, Symptoms and Anxiety addresses
the complex role that is played by inhibition in relation to neurosis. It therefore
makes a very good pairing with The Rat Man. A similar procedure will be
followed as in Sessions 1 and 2.
Week 4: Will continue with the clinical implications to be derived from
Inhibitions, Symptoms and Anxiety and again trainees may wish to offer
presentations.
Week 5: Lacan famously characterised the dilemma of the obsessional as,
“Am I alive or am I dead?” We will examine this statement in particular and
Lacan’s understanding of obsessional neurosis using two short papers,
“Some Notes on Obsessional Neurosis” by Darian Leader and “A Short
Account of Obsessional Neurosis in Freud and Lacan” by Hara Pepeli. Both
of these papers can be downloaded from the net.
Val Parks
Hysteria: what is it, where did it come from and where has it gone?
For many historians of psychoanalysis, it was hysteria which promoted
Freud’s discovery of psychoanalysis. Yet the topic has been hugely
controversial, then and now, and many clinicians today would contend that it
is an outmoded category. In these seminars we will look closely at two
foundational texts on hysteria and examine their part in Freud’s thinking. We
will also look at their place in later developments of psychoanalysis, assessing
the ways in which his work has been used and developed.
Week 6: Studies on Hysteria : Anna O.
Usually regarded as the first psychoanalysis, this case of Breuer’s is essential
reading! The text will be firstly put into the context of medical ideas of the time
about hysteria, and Freud’s own early formulations.
Supplementary texts:
Freud, S (1895) “Neuro-psychoses of Defense”
Ellenberger, H The Discovery of the Unconscious Fontana, London, 1994
Week 7: Studies on Hysteria: Elisabeth
The case of Elisabeth is an interesting precursor to that of Dora, with its initial
centralising of the hysteric’s problematic relationship with the father, with her
own body and the identifications she forms so prolifically.
Supplementary texts:
Andre, S What Does a Woman Want? Other Press, New York, 1999 (I will be
drawing on this throughout)
Nasio, J-D. Hysteria, The Splendid Child of Psychoanalysis, Aronson, New
Jersey and London, 1997. This short book provides a Lacanian summary of
the development of Freud’s thinking on hysteria and how it is taken up by
Lacanians.
Week 8: Dora (1) Feminine Sexuality
This session will draw out the elements which Freud sees as key to the
psychosexuality of Dora. We will think about the accuracy of Freud’s critics,
especially feminist ones, who see his account as paternalistic.
Supplementary texts:
Rose, J. (1978) “Dora, Fragment of an Analysis” in In Dora’s Case: Freud-
Hysteria-Feminism ed. Bernheimer and Kahane, Columbia University Press,
New York, 1990
Week 9 Dora (2) Hysterical Conversion versus Psychosomatic
Symptoms
Would we see a patient like Dora today? Is it true to say that there are no
longer patients presenting with hysterical conversion? If not, why not? What is
the difference between conversion and psychosomatic symptoms?
Supplementary texts:
McDougall, J. The Cork Child
Leader, D. Why Do People Get Ill? especially chapter 6 “Can illness have a
meaning?” Penguin, London 2007
Week 10 Dora (3) Freud as Analyst
Controversy has long reigned over Freud’s management of the transference
and countertransference in Dora’s case. We will look closely at some of
Freud’s interventions and read them against the comments of later
theoreticians.
Supplementary texts:
Lacan, J. (1951) “Intervention on the Transference” from Ecrits trans. B. Fink
Norton, New York, 2006
Mitchell, J. (2000) Mad men and Medusas : chapter 6 “From Hysteria to
Motherhood” Penguin, London, 2000
Some psychoanalytic perspectives on psychosis
Haya Oakley, 11th January – 8th February 2014
The aim of the course is to introduce or re-visit some of the main
psychoanalytic attempts at understanding and working with patients
diagnosed as psychotic. My hope is that by the end of the five weeks we can
have a clear picture of the map of the various theories, how they relate to one
another, where they differ fundamentally and what are the inevitable clinical
consequences. We will do this through discussing assigned reading, my
teaching and some clinical examples. I have no way of knowing in advance
the range of theories some of you will be familiar with nor the extent of your
clinical experience so changes to the planned teaching will hopefully emerge
organically as we share our knowledge of the subject.
Week 1: Paranoia
Paranoia is a systematic, chronic delusional system which is logically
sustained. Its logic is but one of the paradoxes which we will address in this
seminar as we ask the question: How can we tell whether someone is
paranoid rather than a xenophobe, racist or crackpot?
I will bring clinical illustrations. No specific reading required on the night. The
enthusiasts amongst you might want to look for this unusual book: Y Fried
and J Agassi. Paranoia: A Study in Diagnosis. Boston Studies in Philosophy
of Science Volume L. D Reidel Publishing Co.
Week 2: Freud and the Object Relations
In this seminar we will re-visit Freud’s theory of psychosis and then move to
the Object Relations and Klein. I will assume that you are familiar with the
Schreber case and some of you might want to revise your knowledge of Klein
and in particular her notion of the Paranoid-schizoid position.
Reading:
Freud, S (1922b) Some neurotic mechanisms in Jealousy, Paranoia and
Homosexuality. SE XIII 195
Freud, S (1924b) Neurosis and Psychosis. SE XIX 149
Freud, S (1924e) The Loss of Reality in Neurosis and Psychosis SE XIX 183
(If you only have time for one, read this one)!
Segal H The psychopathology of the paranoid-schizoid position In:
Introduction to the work of Melanie Klein. The International Psycho-Analytical
Library (pp54-67). Hogarth Press. London 1973
Week 3: R.D. Laing and the 1968 revolution
We will discuss Laing in context, the so called ‘Anti-psychiatric’ movement
and the effects of the 1968 revolution on current day attitudes to mental
health.
Reading: R.D. Laing The Divided Self. Penguin Books. London 1965
Week 4: J. Lacan
In this seminar we will chart the basic template of the Lacanian theory of
psychosis through a detailed study of the paper:
Lacan, J. On a question preliminary to any possible treatment of psychosis.
In Ecrit, a selection. Tavistock Publications, London 1977. 179-221
The enthusiasts might want to read Darian Leader’s book What is madness?.
Hamish Hamilton press. London 2011.
Week 5: F. Roustang
We will finish the series with Roustang’s paper and I will attempt to
demonstrate some of the clinical implications of what we have done.
Reading:
Roustang, F. Towards a Theory of Psychosis. In Dire Mastery. Discipleship
from Freud to Lacan. John Hopkins University Press. Baltimore and London.
1976.
The paper on psychosis is added at the end of a book on psychoanalytic
discipleship which is a real treat and I highly recommend that you read it at
some point in your psychoanalytic journey.
Perversion
Stephen Gee, 15th February – 15th March
Please read as much of the following as you can with priority given to the
Freud and Deleuze. Other papers are added for particular weeks. All the
journal articles and the Freud papers can be found on PEP. The short
headings for each week will form the basis of trainees’ short papers and our
discussions
On Fetishism,1927 and The Economic Problem of Masochism,1924, Freud,
S.
Hostility and Mystery in Perversion, Stoller R J, Int Journal Psy 1974.
Masochism: Coldness and Cruelty, Deleuze G, Zone Books.
Perversion; Psychoanalytic Perspectives; Perspectives on Psychoanalysis,
Ed. Dany Nobus and Lisa Downing.
Masochism, Submission, Surrender Masochism as a Perversion of Surrender,
Ghent E, Contemporary Psychoanalysis 1990.
Week 1: Introduction. I will present a paper which will contextualise the
themes and the reading. Discussion.
Week 2: Whose perversion? Is there a borderline? What, if anything, might
happen in the transference?
Perversion is Us? Dimen M, Psychoanalytic Dialogues 2001.
Hostility and Mystery in Perversion; Stoller R J, Int Journal Psy 1974.
A Clinical Contribution to the Analysis of a Perversion, Joseph B, Int J of Psy
1971.
Week 3: Phantasy, anxiety and the power of submission. Does masochism
depend on its other half, sadism or is it a distinct clinical (and literary) entity?
Coldness and Cruelty, Deleuze G.
The Characteristics of Masochism, Reik T, American Imago 1939.
Week 4: Uses and abuses. Is fetishism a pathological phenomenon inside
our (their?) heads or a cultural and historical feature of modern societies.
Transitional Objects and Transitional Phenomena, Winnicott D.W. Int J of
Psy, 1953.
Stanzas, Chapter 10, Mme Panckoucke; or the Toy Fairy, Agamben G. Univ
of Minnesota Press.
Week 5: A undermining foundation? What possible place can psychoanalysis
and psychotherapy take up in relation to perversion?
Masochism and the General Theory of Seduction, in Laplanche J. Essays on
Otherness, Routledge.
The Economic Problem of Masochism, Freud S.
Masochism, Submission, Surrender – Masochism as a Perversion of
Surrender, Ghent E.
Ending(s) in Psychoanalysis
Peter Wood and Angela Kreeger: weekend of 22nd-23rd March
We want to use this weekend to harness the creative energies of the group.
We will read and discuss theoretical and other materials and exchange
experiences on the ending of an analysis. We will be spending time together
in various ways: This will be thinking together about the papers we’ve offered,
in small and large groups, eating together, role playing maybe even watching
a film. The aim is for some intimacy, and to keep things open, with the focus
of Ending(s). As well as addressing the papers we hope that we can
incorporate thinking about what it is we’re doing, and why we are doing it.
One ending leads to another: our hope is that we will lean towards thinking
about life and death; endings are a part of everyday life, and a feature of
psychoanalysis – we cannot avoid them. These are ethical questions and not
simply reducible to approach or methodology. We might ask, for instance, a
contemporaneous example, if it is conceivable for an analyst to have a
relationship with an ex-patient; can we even allow for the notion of ‘ex-patient’
at all?
Is the end of an analysis to be marked as the death of the psychoanalytical
relationship in which case, what happens once regular sessions have
finished? What is, in any way, the ‘it’ (fantasy, unconscious life etc) that is
resolvable, a ‘working through’? So some talk of a complete or successful
analysis; what might this imply? Or, is the end, as Ferenczi put “when it dies
of exhaustion”? Should we expect the analysand, at the end, to be cured?
What about Freud’s notions of turning misery into ordinary unhappiness,
(what’s the difference) or enabling one to love and work? And how does that
one fit into today’s world?
We’d like you to bring clinical vignettes – either from your work, or your own
experience.
Reading.
Ferraro & Garella: Endings: On Termination in psychoanalysis (2009)
Ferenczi in Barossa (ed)The Problem Of The Termination of the Analysis in
Selected Writings (1999 (1930) pp245-54
Freud Analysis Terminable and Interminable (1937)
Phillips, A. ‘ Talking Nonsense and Knowing When to Stop’ – in Side Effects.
Roustang Psychoanalysis never lets go, chapter 4, ‘transference, the dream’
Roustang: How to make a paranoid laugh… chapter 10, on the end of
analysis and self-hypnosis as a cure
Roustang: ‘transference, terminable, interminable’ in Psychoanalytical
Review, 1989, (76(2), pp39-47.
Feminism and Psychoanalysis
Brid Greally, April 26th – May 24th
In this module we will explore some of the debates between the discourses of
Feminism and Psychoanalysis, which address tensions concerned with the
relationship between social transformation and ‘working through’. Such
debates have often been vexed and Juliet Mitchell (2002. Gender and
Sexuality 3:217-228. ) in response to Lynne Segal (2001.Gender and
Sexuality 2:327-343) claims that Feminism and Psychoanalysis have not been
good for each other. She claims that these potentially progressive discourses
has exacerbated the death drive in the other and have pulled the other back
to a status quo ante and ‘to intellectual inertia and status quo conformity’.
This will be an opportunity to explore and seek ways in which these debates
can be productive for psychoanalytic practice. Even though, they are wide
ranging, we will attempt to address some of the nodal points in an extensive
network of controversy, touching on both the Anglo-American and European
traditions.
An outline for seminars:
Week 1: Benjamin, Recognition and the search for the good enough
mother.
‘Recognition and Destruction’.
Like Subject, Love Objects; Essays on Recognition and Sexual Difference
Benjamin (1995:27-48)
We will discuss Benjamin’s use of the Hegelian master-slave dialectic of
recognition and explore whether it is successful in elaborating the
unconscious effects of oppression.
Week 2: Baraitser and Maternal Subjectivity.
‘Mum’s the word; Intersubjectivity, Alterity and Maternal Subject’
Baraitser, (2008).Studies on Gender and Sexuality 9:86-110.
We will discuss Baraitser’s attempt to address the question of
Maternal subjectivity which is considered by many feminists to presents a
lacuna in much of psychoanalytic theory whilst simultaneously being as a
source of sexism and heterosexism.
Week 3: Irigaray and Matricide
Sexual Difference
The Irigaray Reader ed. Margaret Whitford. (1991:165-177) Blackwell Press.
We will discuss the deconstructive and utopian moments in the work of
Irigaray and explore whether it is of help in thinking difference and sameness.
Week 4: Kristeva and the Imaginary Father
‘Freud and Love: Treatment and Its Discontents’
Kristeva The Kristeva Reader ed Toril Moi (1986: p238-271.
We will contrast Kristeva’s theory of the Imaginary father and contrast it with
Lacan’s Symbolic father and explore the implications for sexual difference.
Week 5: Butler and the foreclosed
The Psychic Life of Power: Theories of Subjection Butler (1997).
We will discuss Butler’s theories of performativity, subjection and
dispossession and explore whether these concept are of help in addressing
issues of power in our practice.
Background reading;
Doane, Y. & Hodges, D. (1992) From Klein to Kristeva; Psychoanalytic
Feminism and the Search for the “Good Enough” Mother. University of
Michigan Press.
Ellis, M.L. & O’Connor, N. ( 2010 )Questioning Identities; Philosophy in
Psychoanalytic Practice.Karnac. London.
Grosz, E. (1989) Sexual Subversions; Three French Feminist Kristeva,
Irigaray and Le Doeuff.
Allen and Unwin.
O’Connor, N. & Ryan, J (1993) Wild Desire and Mistaken Identities. Virago
Press.
Willett, C. (1995) Maternal Ethics and Other Slave Moralities. Routledge.
Embodiment
Peter Nevins and James Mann, June 7th – July 5th
This series of seminars will work through various theoretical formulations of
embodiment starting from Winnicott to the later formulations of Judith Butler.
We aim to move through the object relations tradition to more contemporary
explorations of sexuality, race and embodiment.
Week 1: Winnicott – The Mind and Its Relation to the Psyche-Soma and
The Story of the Mind – Adam Phillips.
In D. W. Winnicott Through Paediatrics to Psychoanalysis, Karnac, 1984.
Phillips Paper in “The Mind Object”, Jason Aronson Inc, 1995
Week 2: Joyce MacDougall – Theatres of the Body
In taking the theatre as a metaphor for psychic reality MacDougal hopes to
avoid the standard psychiatric and psychoanalytic classifications. She
maintains that to designate someone as Neurotic or psychotic a pervert or
psychosomatic is little more than name-calling and is inadequate to describe
anything as complex and subtle as a human personality.
Joyce MacDougall – Theatres of the Body, Free Association Books; 3rd
edition, 1989
Week 3: Elizabeth Grosz – Chapters 2 (Psychoanalysis and Psychical
Topographies), 4 (Lived bodies, Phenomenology of the flesh) and 7
(Intensities and Flow) in Volatile Bodies.
Her we pick up with a Merleau-Pontian account of the lived experience
through Grosz’s work.
Elizabeth Grosz – Volatile Bodies, Indiana Univesity press, 1994
Week 4: Kafka – The Hunger Artist, Metamorphosis and Before the Law
with Judith Butler on Kafka.
Using these three very short stories we will explore Butler’s conversation
about his work and its relationship to embodiment.
Franz Kafka – All In “Metamorphosis and other stories”, Penguin Classics;
New Ed edition (25 Jan 2007).
Week 5: Judith Butler – Passing, queering: Nella Larson’s
Psychoanalytic Challenge (recommended reading Nella Larson’s novel,
Passing)
In the last week we will extend the debate to explore issues of Sexuality and
Race and the body.
In “Bodies That Matter: On the Discursive Limits of Sex” Routledge Classics,
1993