NEWSLETTER - FALL 2009
The Psychoanalysis Study Group is an interdisciplinary seminar for
academics and clinicians who are interested in psychoanalytic theory.
Through close reading of texts and presentations by psychoanalysts and
academics, we consider the application of psychoanalytic ideas to
patients, texts, film, art, culture, and ideas, leaving room to
elaborate points of common interest and points of difference.
October 7, 2009 5 - 7pm Haldeman 125
"The Social Source of Suffering": The irreconcilable conflict between individual and society in Freud's Civilization and Its Discontents.
In this meeting, we will explore Freud's contention that "our civilization is largely responsible for our misery, and that we should be much happier if we gave it up and returned to primitive conditions," while considering the irony in this claim, stemming from the idea that civilized society is constructed in order to protect us from suffering. This will lead us back to the paradoxes of neurotic structure on the individual scale as well: defenses that were recruited in order to protect us from pain become our prison cells, barring freedom and fulfillment.
November 4, 2009 5 - 7pm Haldeman 125
Case Material on Trauma in Psychoanalysis.
In this meeting, we will read clinical case material of a patient with a history of trauma in order to further explore the way in which external impingements can reverberate on an intra-psychic level, and address issues of interpretation and containment in this regard.
Winter 2010 - Time and Venue TBA
Freud's Screen Memories
Through reading two articles in which Freud theorizes about screen memories through the presentation of two central memories of his own, we will consider the nature of memory, and central aspects about remembering and forgetting as understood within psychoanalysis. This will bear on the formation of cultural memory as well.
Winter 2010 - Time and Venue TBA
Triads and Triangles
This meeting will draw out themes from our previous discussion of Freud's paper, "The Theme of the Three Caskets." We will look at references to triads of women that appear in Freud's own memories and associations, while also considering the role of a triangle between three subjectivities as presented in Freud's elaboration of the Oedipus complex.
If you are interested in attending these meetings please mail the Administrator.
Coordinators: Sally Ackerman (psychoanalyst in private practice), Aden Evens (English), Veronika Fuechtner (German Studies), Susannah Heschel (Religion)
Image : Konstantin Binder Distributed under Gnu Free Document License
