Psychoanalysis as a critical theory

elective monographs

During the seminar we are going to discuss the chosen texts of those psychoanalysts and philosophers inspired by psychoanalysis whose thought may be inscribed in the tradition of critical theory (in the wide sense of the term).

Almost from its inception, psychoanalysis has faced the charge of social and political conservatism. Isn't therapy just a way to make the individual fit again and harness him or her to social reproduction? Isn't the supposedly universal Oedipus complex in reality rather associated with the operation of a historically and culturally specific model of the bourgeois and patriarchal nuclear family? On the other hand, also from the very beginning, there have been ideas in psychoanalysis that take aim at the mechanisms of social oppression and in them identify the source of individual suffering. Concepts such as neurosis, psychosis or narcissism are here tools for analysing contemporary society. The seminar will focus on precisely those conceptions in which psychoanalysis becomes a medium for critical thinking, a critical theory in the broad sense of the term, encompassing a whole range of ideas, not only those belonging to the Frankfurt School tradition. We will begin with a reading of selected texts by Freud, and proceed through the theories of Gross, Reich, Adorno, Fromm and Marcuse, among others, to works written in the last decades of the 20th century (Deleuze, Lasch, Theweleit, Žižek) and recently (Zupančič, Leder, Dufourmantelle), including those starting from the inspiration of Lacanian thought.

Literature (fragments)

Z. Freud, Pisma społeczne, Poza zasadą przyjemności

O. Gross, Selected Works

W. Reich, The Sexual Revolution, Psychologia mas wobec faszyzmu, People in Trouble

T.W. Adorno, Minima moralia, Osobowość autorytarna

K. Theweleit, Męskie fantazje

E. Fromm, Studies on Authority and the Family, Rewizja psychoanalizy, Ucieczka od wolności

K. Horney, Neurotyczna osobowość naszych czasów, Nerwica a rozwój człowieka

H. Marcuse, Człowiek jednowymiarowy, Eros i cywilizacja

J. Lacan, Seminarium III. Psychozy, The Ethics of Psychoanalysis

G. Deleuze, F. Guattari, Anty-Edyp, G. Deleuze, C. Parnet, Dialogi

C. Lasch, Kultura narcyzmu

S. Žižek, Przekleństwo fantazji, Wzniosły obiekt ideologii, W obronie przegranych spraw

A. Zupančič, Why Psychoanalysis?, Ehtics of the Real

A. Leder, Ekonomia to stan umysłu

A. Dufourmantelle, Pochwała ryzyka

Acquired knowledge:

- students will be familiar with the chosen psychoanalytical theories and with its applications in the analysis of society and culture

- students will be aware of the chosen norms that constitute and regulate social structures and institutions, and able to identify the sources of these norms, their nature and many ways they influence human behaviour

Acquired skills:

- students will read and interpret selected psychoanalytical and philosophical texts

- students will be able to identify links between the formation of ideas and social/cultural processes

- students will be able to apply in a correct manner the philosophical and psychoanalytical vocabulary pertaining to the problematic of the course

Acquired social competence:

- students will be aware of the range of knowledge they acquired and understand the need for continual education

- students will be open to new ideas and ready to change their views in the light of available data and arguments

Grading will be based on presentations or essays. Presentations should elaborate the problematic discussed during particular meetings by deepening it and referring to additional sources. Essays should contain well thought out, coherent and informed elaborations of the chosen aspects of the course’s problematic

Number of absences: 2 in a semester