Date

Class Agenda

Session 1

Feb. 3

2025

Topic: Introduction to psychoanalysis

Description: Psychoanalysis was introduced by Sigmund Freud more than a century ago and since then it has undergone a series of transformations and stagnations. We’ll contour the main lines of this historical development, starting with its birth at Freud’s times and moving forward to today’s conjuncture.

Reading: Freud S. Fragment of an Analysis of a Case of Hysteria,pp 1-30 (1905), Althusser L. Freud and Lacan (1969), Lacan J. The Seminar, Book 2. The Ego in Freud’s Theory and in the Technique of Psychoanalysis 1954-55 (chapters 1-3)

Assignments/deadlines: students are encouraged to talk about their knowledge/experience of psychoanalysis and their own expectations of the course

Session 2

Feb. 10

2025

Topic: Freud and Dora

Description: Hysteria as the historical site where analysis was born. The relations between psychoanalysis and the figure of the hysteric are fundamental for the understanding of psychoanalysis as a discipline. Freud’s case of Dora is a canonical psychoanalytic theoretical and clinical evidence; we’ll examine its main conceptual framework and its engagement into feminist debates.

Reading: Freud S. Fragment of an Analysis of a Case of Hysteria, pp. 30-123 (1905), Kahane C. eds. In Dora’s Case (1985), Benvenuto S. Dora Flees: Is There Anything Left to Say About Hysterics? (2005),

Assignments/deadlines: 1 presentation on the topic, discussion about hysteria as a historical, nosological or sociopolitical phenomenon, its today’s variations.

Session 3

Feb. 17

2025

Topic: The desire

Description: The major Freudian discovery is the dimension of unconscious desire: something that is repressed but still insists on its presence in the form of various symptomatic formations. The seminar will introduce the students to the psychoanalytic understanding of this concept.

Reading: Freud S.: The Interpretation of Dreams, chapter VI “The Dream-Work” (1900), Zupančič A.: Why psychoanalysis? (2008)

Assignments/deadlines: 1 presentation on the topic, discussion about neurosis as a clinical and cultural phenomenon

Session 4

Feb. 24

2025

Topic: The signifier

Description: This session will be devoted to studying basis linguistic units as they were introduced by structural linguistics and further developed in formalist approach. We’ll start talking about structuralism in general and its connection with psychoanalysis.

Reading: de Saussure F. The Course of General Linguistics, pp. 65-79 (1916), Jakobson R. Two Aspects of Language and Two Types of Aphasic Disturbance (1956)

Assignments/deadlines: 1 presentation on the topic, discussion about the meaning of speech and studying language

Session 5

Mar. 3

2025

Topic: The desire and the signifier: what it means to be a speaking animal

Description: It was already Freud who discovered a connection between speech and psyche, yet until Lacan’s turn to linguistics some of Freud’s innovations were not properly understood. This seminar will be devoted to the reasons and theoretical instruments of Lacan’s return to Freud and to the psychoanalytic concept of the drive.

Reading: Lacan, J. The Instance of the Letter in the Unconscious, or Reason Since Freud (1957), Dolar M.: Of Drives and Culture (2017)

Assignments/deadlines: 1 presentation on the topic, discussion about nature and culture

Session 6

Mar. 10

2025

Topic: Human sexuality

Description: Starting with Freud and his scandalous discoveries psychoanalysis insists on a fundamental significance of sexuality not only as a biological dimension but as an integral part of psyche’s formation, whereas the border between the two is not easily articulated. We’ll talk about the history of studying sexuality and the main psychoanalytic concepts employed here.

Reading: Lacan J. The Function and Field of Speech and Language in Psychoanalysis (1953), Freud S. Analysis of a Phobia in a Five-Year-Old Boy (1909)

Assignments/deadlines: 1 presentation on the topic, discussion about sexuality, gender

Session 7

Mar. 17

2025

Topic: Psychoanalysis and contemporary studies of sexuality

Description: Following the trajectory of the previous session we’ll discuss the tradition of engaging psychoanalysis as a theoretical tool in various disciplines whose object of research is sexuality: gender studies, queer studies

Reading: Butler J. Gender Trouble (1990), Deleuze G. and Guattari F. Anti-Oedipus, pp. 51-75 (2010)

Assignments/deadlines: 1 presentation on the topic, discussion about gender, sexuality, and ideology; midterm paper.

March 24

Mid-term break

Session 8

Mar. 31

2025

Topic: Woman  a ‘dark continent’

Description: The relations between feminism and psychoanalysis has never been easy: sometimes psychoanalysis is blamed for misogyny and chauvinism, sometimes it is used as the main theoretical resource to support the feminist agenda. The seminar will outline how the feminine is conceptualized within the psychoanalytic framework and what effect it produces when we talk about women elsewhere.

Reading: Kristeva J. Powers of Horror, pp. 1-31 (1980), Mitchell J., interview. “Psychoanalysis and Feminism: Then and now” (2015), Smulansky A. The Child and the Woman’s Enjoyment (2012)

Assignments/deadlines: 1 presentation on the topic, discussion about the feminine and feminism

Session 9

Apr. 7

2025

Topic: Lacan’s theory of sexuation

Description: Lacan’s reformulation of sexual difference in terms of its relation with the concept of the signifier was a major breakthrough in our strategies of thinking sex. The students will be introduced into Lacan’s differentiation, demonstrating its innovative character along with its limitations.

Reading: Lacan J. The Seminar. Book XX “Encore”, On Feminine Sexuality, the Limits of Love and Knowledge, 1972-73, Chapters V-VI.

Assignments/deadlines: 1 presentation on the topic, discussion about the limits of sexuality

Session 10

Apr. 14

2025

Topic: Recent development of the theory of sexuation vs activism

Description: During the last sessions it was demonstrated that sexuality is being studied from different angles by various disciplines, yet what is not so often brought up is the very interest to the idea of sexuality: why is it such a burning issue for the contemporary subject? and where does most of the attempts to conceptualize it fail? We’ll examine further development of Lacan’s theory of sexuation.

Reading: Smulansky A. Queer Studies and Phallic Function (2016), Dean T. Hatred of Sex. Introduction (2022)

Assignments/deadlines: 1 presentation on the topic, discussion about activism vs. conservatism

Session 11

Apr. 28

2025

Topic: Lacan’s jouissance as a historical operator

Description: The concept of enjoyment or jouissance is widely appropriated across the academic discourse in the attempt to answer the question: how contemporary subjectivity is shaped and under what conditions it could be led to a more harmonious existence. The seminar will place jouissance within Lacanian conceptual apparatus.

Reading: Lacan J. The Seminar. Book XX “Encore”, On Feminine Sexuality, the Limits of Love and Knowledge, 1972-73, Chapter II.

Assignments/deadlines: 1 presentation on the topic, discussion about enjoyment, activism vs. conservatism

Session 12

May 5

2025

Topic: Michel Foucault’s ‘pleasure practices’ and jouissance

Description: The concept of pleasure practices introduced by Foucault in his later work is presented as a disregarded alternative for practicing the sexual in a more profound way than it is suggested by the current discourse. The seminar traces down its possible theoretical intersection with Lacan’s conceptualization of jouissance.

Reading: Foucault M. The Gay Science (2011); Sex, Power, and the Politics of Identity (1994)

Assignments/deadlines: 1 presentation on the topic, discussion about enjoyment, activism, gender

Session 13

May 12

2025

Topic: The pleasure of referring to psychoanalysis

Description: From Wilhelm Reich, who cherished the idea of bringing psychoanalysis into masses, to Ian Parker, who believes in a revolutionary potential of this theory, psychoanalysis is regarded as an ally in the mission of liberating the individual. The seminar will introduce the students to the history of freudomarxism in order to challenge this strategy.

Reading: McGowan T. The Ethics of the Death Drive, Lacan J. The Seminar Book XVII. The Other Side of Psychoanalysis. Chapter XII

Assignments/deadlines: 1 presentation on the topic, discussion about Marxism, Neoliberalism.

Session 14

May 19

2025

Topic: Conclusions and responses

Description: The final session will sum up the previous work, highlighting new perspectives for Freudo-lacanian psychoanalysis that are being developed right now in various parts of the Globe along with the most recent themes that have been brought up: the question of psychoanalytic community and the future fate of the discipline.  

Reading: Smulansky A. Clinique in the Hole (2024)

Assignments/deadlines: final exam in the form of an in-class essay; final paper.

Assessed area

Percentage

Over the semester, 1 formal presentation is required by each student on a topic of their choice: 30 min long. The topic should be discussed and approved by the instructor at the beginning of the course. Students should also be prepared to facilitate class discussion of their presentations, and pre-prepare questions to the class on the topic for this purpose. The aim is to encourage class debate on these topics allowing students to apply knowledge learned during class to a specific discussion. All students, not just the presenter, are expected to participate.

30% of the total mark

Assessed area

Percentage

There will be one final exam in the form of an in-class essay. On the essays students should show a high level of spontaneous creativity, comprehension of the area involved and good analytical abilities. They are expected to show a good grasp of the theoretical issues and make a good case to support their argument. 

20% of the total mark

A midterm paper, 8 pages (double-line spacing), is due week 7, on a topic of the student’s choice approved by the instructor. It must show good abilities of analysis, synthesis and application of theory to a relevant social-political topic. It should be well researched and referenced and include a bibliography. The student is expected to take an independent position and be able to defend their point of view. 

20% of the total mark

A final paper, 12 pages (double-line spacing), is due week 14, on a topic of the student’s choice approved by the instructor. It must show good abilities of analysis, synthesis and application of theory to a relevant social-political topic. It should be well researched and referenced and include a bibliography. The student is expected to take an independent position and be able to defend their point of view. 

30% of the total mark