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Psychodynamics COURSE SYLLABUS PSYCHODYNAMICS California Institute of Integral Studies MCP Mildred Dubitzky, Ph. D., Instructor Fall 2007 This course examines the history of psychodynamic ideas and concepts pertaining to psychopathology—“soul-suffering”—and how to heal it. The material follows a chronological perspective, beginning with Sigmund Freud’s “Classical” Psychoanalysis, and continuing with the emergence of contemporary models, including Object Relations theory, Self Psychology, and Intersubjectivity, among others. The purpose of the class is to provide students with a working knowledge of basic theoretical and clinical topics, among them notions of the self and its development, and fundamental psychotherapeutic issues such as transference, resistance and defense. Students will be encouraged to think critically about the various psychodynamic perspectives, as part of evolving their own theoretical and clinical stance. CLASS SCHEDULE/OUTLINE (fifteen class meetings) 1. Introduction and course overview. The myth and meaning of “Psyche”. “Radical” Freud. Psychoanalysis and the “medical model”. Desire, suffering and spirituality. Pleasure and symptoms.; repression and the unconscious. j Obsessive-compulsive neurosis. Reading: Bettelheim, Bruno (May 1, 1982). Freud and the Soul. The New Yorker, pp. 52-93. Freud, Sigmund (1917). Lecture XVI: Psychoanalysis and Psychiatry and Lecture XVII: The Sense of Symptoms. In The Standard Edition of the Complete Works of Sigmund Freud (vol. XVI, pp. 243-272). London: The Hogarth Press and The Institute of Psycho-Analysis. 2. Neurosis, continued: Hysteria and the case of Dora. Love, vengeance and psychopathology. The psychoanalytic view of depression. Reading: Thompson, Michael Guy (1985). The Truth About Dora. In The Truth About Freud’s Technique (pp. 93-132). New York and London: The New York University Press. Freud, Sigmund (1917). Mourning and Melancholia (vol. XIV, pp. 239-258). In The Standard Edition of the Complete Works of Sigmund Freud. London: The Hogarth Press and The Institute of Psycho-Analysis. 3 and 4. The sexual "instinct": Infantile sexuality, psycho-sexual development and the Oedipus complex. The concept of “libido” and the sexual disorders”. Reading: Freud, Sigmund (1917). Lecture XX : The Sexual Life of Human Beings, and Lecture XXI : The Development of the Libido. In The Standard Edition of the Complete Works of Sigmund Freud (vol. XVI, pp. 303-338). London: The Hogarth Press and The Institute of Psycho-Analysis. Kahn, Michael (2002). Chapter 3: Psychosexual Development and chapter 4: The Oedipus Complex. in Basic Freud: Psychoanalytic Thought for the Twenty-first Century (pp. 33-91). New York: Basic Books. 5 and 6. “Classical” psychoanalytic technique: basic principles and major issues and controversies: “Evenly suspended attention” and the concepts of Neutrality and Abstinence; Free association and the Fundamental Rule; Transference, Counter-transference, Resistance, and Working-through”. Reading: Freud, Sigmund (1911-13). Recommendations to Physicians Practicing Psychoanalysis; On Beginning the Treatment; The Dynamics of Transference; Observations on Transference Love; and Remembering, Repeating, and Working-Through. In The Standard Edition of the Complete Works of Sigmund Freud (vol. XII, pp. 115-143; 99-108; 157 -171; 145- 156). London: The Hogarth Press and The Institute of Psycho-Analysis. Kahn Michael (2002). Chapter 5: The Repetition Compulsion. In Basic Freud: Psychoanalytic Thought for the Twenty- first Century (pp. 93-103). New York: Basic Books. 7. Introduction to post-Freudian models. Object Relations theories and the “personality disorders”. The movement to pre-Oedipal issues and the role of the mother in the work of Melanie Klein. Splitting and Projection. The Paranoid-schizoid and the Depressive positions. Reading: Riviere, Joan. (1937). Hate, Greed, and Aggression. In Klein, Melanie and Riviere,, Joan. Love, Hate, and Reparation (pp. 3-53). New York: W. W. Norton and Company. 8. Object Relations, continued: D W Winnicott on “Transitional phenomena”, Play, and the “True and False Self”. The role of "good-enough" mothering. Reading: Winnicott, D. W. (1971). Chapter 1: Transitional Objects and Transitional Phenomena; chapter 3: Playing, a Theoretical Statement;and chapter 8: The Place Where We Live. In Playing and Reality (pp. 1-25; 38-52; and 104-110). London Tavistock Publications. Winnicott, D. W. (1960). Ego Distortion in terms of True and False Self. In The Maturational Processes and the Facilitating Environment (pp. 141-152). London: The Hogarth Press and The Institute of Psycho-Analysis. 9. Hans Kohut and Self Psychology. Healthy and pathological narcissism. The "self- object":functions: mirroring, idealizing, twinship/alter-ego. Empathy and psychotherapeutic technique. Controversial departures from classical principles. Reading: Baker, Howard S. and Margaret N. (1967). Hans Kohut's Self Psychology: an Overview. In The American Journal of Psychiatry (144:1), 1-9. Kohut, Hans (1979). The Two Analyses of Mister Z". In International Journal of Psychoanalysis (60:3), 1-27. 10. Integrative approaches to the "personality disorders". The American school of James Masterson. Separation/individuation and the development of the "real" and "false" self. Reading: Masterson, James F. (1988). Chapter 1: The False Self; chapter 2: The Development of the Real Self; chapter 3: The Real Self in Action; and chapter 4: Fear of Abandonment. In The Search for the Real Self: Unmasking the personality Disorders of Our Time (pp. 1-74). New York: The Free Press and London: Collier Macmillan Publishers. 11. Borderline Personality Disorder: Psychopathology and Treatment. The "deflated false self". Reading: Masterson, James F. 1988). Chapter 5: Portrait of the Borderline and chapter 8: Psychotherapy with the Borderline. In The Search for the real Self: Unmasking the personality Disorders of Our Time (pp. 75-89 and 129-148). New York: The Free Press and London: Collier Macmillan Publishers. 12. Narcissistic personality disorder: psychopathology and treatment. The "inflated false self". Reading: Masterson, James F. 1988). Chapter 6: Portrait of the Narcissist and chapter 10: Psychotherapy with the Narcissist. In The Search for the real Self: Unmasking the Personality Disorders of Our Time (pp. 90-106 and 174-190). New York: The Free Press, and London: Collier Macmillan Publishers. Optional: Chapter 7: The Challenge of Intimacy (pp. 107-128). 13. Psychodynamic theories of psychosis and the break with "reality": an overview from Freud to the present. Reading: Ogden, Thomas (1982). Chapter 2: The Concept of Projective Identification and chapter 8: The Nature of Schizophrenic Conflict. In Projective Identification and Psychotherapeutic Technique (pp. 11-j37 and 135-171). 14. An introduction to Intersubjectivity and Relational Models. Reading: Benjamin, Jessica. Recognition and Destruction: an Outline of Intersubjectivity. Revised on-line version of Benjamin, Jessica (1990). An Outline of Intersubjectivity: The Development of Recognition. In Psychoanalytic Psychology, 34-46. Laing, Ronald D. (1965). Mystification, Confusion, and Conflict. On-line version, originally published as chapter 9 in Boszormnenyi-Nagy, Ivan and Framo, James L, editors (1965). Intensive Family Therapy: Theoretical and Practical Aspects (pp. 43-63). New York: Harper & Row. 15. Jacques Lacan and the "Return to Freud". What next? Reading: Cantin, Lucie (1993). Chapter 1: The Trauma of Language and Bergeron, Danielle (19 ) chapter 3: The Signifier. In Hughes, jhjRobert and Malone, Kareen Ror, editors (2002) After Lacan: Clinical Practice and the Subject of the Unconscious (pp. 35-48 and 59-70). New York: State University of New York Press. WRITTEN ASSIGNMENTS Two written assignments will be required, each about five pages in length, applying concepts learned in class to concrete actual or fictitious situations. The first will be assigned at mid-semester ,and the other at the end of the course. .
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