The King S University College

The King S University College

<p> The King’s University College Department of Psychology January 2010</p><p>* * *</p><p>Course: Psychology 495 Instructor: Dr. Leendert (Leo) P. Mos Title: Capstone course Office: Psychology Date/time: Wednesdays 1400-1700 Office hours: by appt. Place: NB 108 Tel.: 780-436-1539 (Home) E-mail: [email protected]</p><p>Website: http://ualberta.ca/~lmos/</p><p>______</p><p>Textbooks:</p><p>Notes on the website</p><p>Reference textbooks:</p><p>Taylor, C. (1989). Sources of the self: The making of the modern identity. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, (ISBN 0-521-42949-8; alk. paper; about $30.00) [See also Taylor’s The ethics of ambiguity. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1992 (in Canada under the title The malaise of modernity. CBC Massey Lecture Series. Toronto: Anansi, 1991.) See also Taylor’s Varieties of religion today: William James revisited. Harvard, 2002]</p><p>Taylor, C. (2004). Modern social imaginaries. Durham, NC: Duke University Press.</p><p>______</p><p>Course overview:</p><p>“What view you take is everything, and your view is in your power. Remove it then when you choose, and then, as you had rounded the cape, come calm serenity, a waveless bay.” Meditations, Marcus Aurelius (121-180 CE)</p><p>“As is the water-dish, so is the soul; as is the ray which falls on the water, so are appearances. When then the water is moved the ray too seems to be moved, yet is not. And when, accordingly, a person is giddy, it is not the arts and the virtues which are thrown into confusion, but the spirit to which they belong; and when the person is recovered so are they.” Discourses, Epictetus (55-135 CE) </p><p>Whereas this is listed as a capstone course, I will give it the content of self- estrangement and therefore it may be expected to concern itself with (conceptions of) the self, I expect to address this broad topic (of the person) in social-political theory as a psychologist with a concern for self-deception. That we are able to deceive ourselves is nothing short of a challenge to a coherent and unified conception of ourselves - our identity - as rational beings. Moreover, the capacity to deceive ourselves is in a sense to be estranged from ourselves and, I will argue, others, and so we may expect to come full circle to the topic of self-estrangement. In any case, nothing much is lost in the transition from the self to self-deception although historically the topic of the self has greater philosophical scope - saying something about our human nature - whereas the topic of self-deception is merely one among many capacities of our human nature. Furthermore, the topic of self-deception will allow us to roam widely throughout the discipline of psychology and, as we will eventually reach to topic of the self, beyond psychology to include the other human sciences, and history.</p><p>The first part of my lectures will constitute an extended expository reading of some lectures on self-deception presenting a phenomenological-hermeneutical perspective for self-deception in a manner that will allow you to find yourself “at home” in it. The seemingly paradoxical capacity we possess for deceiving ourselves (and so to be estranged from ourselves) culminates in an argument for an understanding of the self as a narrative achievement of communal linguistic-cultural practices and, hence, will allude to all those disciplines that rely in their investigations on an understanding of human nature. Therefore, self-deception is not only a topic of psychology but one that has implications for all the human sciences in their quest for an understanding of the nature of persons. It should not be surprising therefore that my expository reading of these lectures will allude to a large body of writings in psychology, philosophy, political and social theory, and religious and literary studies. Many of these are available in the recommended readings listed below. </p><p>Since first teaching a course of this kind, I used as a textbook Sources of the self: the making of the modern identity by Charles Taylor, Professor of Philosophy at McGill University and probably the foremost scholar on the human sciences in this country. Regrettably, this book proved both difficult and lengthy. Taylor has long been a trenchant expositor of modernity, and is well known for his attacks on individualism and the resulting flattening and narrowing of human life, the perils of instrumental reason and its associated technologies/sciences, and the consequences of both these for political freedom. But Taylor is neither a pessimist nor a post-modernist (these are not necessarily equivalent!) and his view on the malaise of modernity is its loss of the imagination. But what has been lost can always be retrieved and our textbook may be viewed in party as consistent with Taylor’s project of retrieval (of the past). Taylor argues that modernity has characteristically endowed human agency with a strong sense of self, but that we have become deeply confused about this feature of our self-understanding. We have come to think of the self analogously to having an arm or, more respectably, a brain; that is, as something that exists independently of the language we use to talk about it. Instead, Taylor argues that the self is a space bounded by moral horizons which we are continually testing as to what is worth doing or being (or just “what matters”). Thus, the self is for Taylor always something that is in question - always something becoming. The book, Sources of the self, is a historical account of what we understand to be a human agent - having a sense of inwardness, freedom, responsibility, and individuality. Yet Taylor is also very cautious about the tendency to think about the self as something inside (subjectivism), as merely the affirmation of ordinary life (and the denial of moral sources outside the putatively unproblematic and inarticulate self). Taylor is not one of those who bemoans contemporary value-relativism or condemns such relativism as merely a self-indulgent way to conveniently render immune from criticism any conceivable life-style. Instead, Taylor’s work of retrieval is to recover the moral sources that characterize modernity in an effort to affirm the quest for authentic self- development.</p><p>The second half of my lectures consists in a story that is not readily accessible in one place - although the first five chapters of Taylor’s book are a big part of that story - and certainly not in the discipline of psychology. But it is a story that is thoroughly psychological with implications for human development and growth in all its social and cultural diversity. As such my story is one that takes seriously the historical reality of all human experiences and practices, and importantly, the social-cultural reality of the self. The second half of my lectures is inspired by the writings of the philosopher Friedrich Hegel and the historian Wilhelm Dilthey, both 19th c. thinkers who have deeply influenced our 20th c. conception of the transition between modern and post-modern thought about culture, society, and identity. These lectures will treat Soren Kierkegaard and Jean-Paul Sartre in considerably depth and then go on to some contemporary considerations on the self in the writings of Heinz Kohut (an object-relations and self theorist), Jacques Lacan, Immanuel Levinas (a philosopher of “otherness”- alterity), and Kazimier Dabrowski, a psychiatrist of the “inner psychic milieu”. Regrettably we may not be able to cover all these in depth.</p><p>As a senior undergraduate course, I expect that you will take this as an opportunity to reflect upon and integrate your previous learning and living. Since my story has something to say about historically situated persons, our concern is with a form of inquiry that is unavoidable interpretative, “hermeneutical” and blatantly practical. As such this course stands in stark contrast to the currently fashionable biological and cognitive orientations in the discipline, and also to a conception of psychology as an autonomous discipline - independent of the other human sciences. Whatever psychology may have to say about the self, this cannot be irrelevant for the other human sciences on risk that what it has to say may itself become irrelevant. Moreover, interpretative inquiry is resolutely dependent on our linguistic practices - the manner in which we choose to articulate our self-understanding and our understanding of others - and so, bring that understanding to discursive formulation.</p><p>As you may anticipate our discussion of the self, of our capacity to deceive ourselves, inevitable raises issues concerning the genesis and formation of the self, our personal identity, our understanding of others, and the possibility of not being ourselves, of being estranged from ourselves in not being ourselves, of being beside ourselves. Therefore, your participation in reflecting on the content of my lectures, on your readings, and on your past learning and experience, is essential to your appreciation of this course. So if my exposition and arguments (both in reading our text and in my subsequent lectures) pertaining to the self are necessarily intellectually demanding, they are more broadly personally demanding insofar as they require that you grow in an understanding of yourself. Importantly, it requires that you are willing and prepared to do so. I firmly believe that our scientific understanding in the human sciences, including psychology, is continuous with our self-understanding, and that all our systematic inquiry as articulated in our scientific theories and explanations must eventually be understood - “lived” - if these theories are to morally enhance our individual and communal life. In any case, my lectures aim less to inform, instruct, or persuade than to move you to thought.</p><p>“What is to prevent one from telling the truth as one laughs?” Art of Poetry, Horace (65-8 BCE)</p><p>______</p><p>Course requirements:</p><p>1. First term paper (about 12-15 pages, about 250 word/page) giving an exposition or overview of the concept of self-deception. (Due date is Feb. 24, after reading week, worth 50%. </p><p>2. Second term paper (about 12-15 pages, about 250 words/page) dealing with the topic of self-deception/self-estrangement as presented in one of the readings/novels listed below, or any other novel you may have already read, or using yourself as a case study. (Due date is March 31, worth 50%).</p><p>Papers should follow APA format (see APA Manual); however you may use the first person in your writings. I also caution you to restrict the number of references to those you have actually read and use in both terms papers. When writing do so from your heart and mind!</p><p>Writing is difficult form of expression! To benefit from this course, listen to my lectures, jot down some few notes, and then go home and writes about the ideas, try to think them through, try to live them, and have them resonate with your life as you live it. </p><p>______</p><p>Schedule: Winter 2010</p><p>Jan 6 Introduction: self-deception Jan 13 “To believe and not to believe” Jan 20 Interdisciplinary conference – no classes Jan 27 “To say or not to say” (consciousness as doing-saying)</p><p>Feb 3 Feb 10 “To avow or not to avow” Feb 17 Reading week - no classes Feb 24 Objects relations theory Mar 3 Mar 10 Existentialists reading of self-deception Mar 17 Jean-Paul Sartre Mar 24 Soren Kierkegaard Mar 31 Social-cultural theory and Psychology Apr 7 Political implications of “self” Apr 14 Review phenomenology and hermeneutics in social science (last class) </p><p>______</p><p>Recommended selected reference readings: </p><p>The readings listed below form the backdrop to my lectures and are intended to serve as a guide to your reading in years to come. </p><p>Alford, C. F. (1991). The self in social theory. A psychoanalytic account of its construction in Plato, Hobbes, Locke, Rawls, and Rousseau. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press. [See also Narcissism: Socrates, the Frankfurt school, and psychoanalytic theory. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press.] </p><p>Brown, N. O. (1959/1985). Life against death: The psychoanalytical meaning of history. Middletown, CT: Wesleyan University Press. [See also Love’s body. New York: Vintage, 1966]</p><p>Butler, J. (2005). Giving an account of oneself. New York: Fordham University Press.</p><p>Caruth, C. (1996). Unclaimed experience: trauma, narrative, and history. London: John Hopkins University Press.</p><p>Cavarero, A. (2000/1997). Relating narratives: storytelling and selfhood (Transl.: Paul A. Kottman). London: Routledge.</p><p>Dabrowski, K. (1996). Multilevelness of emotional and instinctive functions. Lublin, Poland: Towarzysto Naukowe, Katolickiego Univwersytetu Lubelskiego. [Dabrowski, K. (1964). Positive disintegration. Boston: Little, Brown and Company.]</p><p>Fingarette, H. (1963). The self in transformation. Psychoanalysis, philosophy and the life of spirit. New York” Harper & Row Publishers.</p><p>Foucault, M (1965). Madness and civilization: A history of insanity in the age of reason. (Tr. R. Howard.) New York: Vintage.</p><p>Foucault, M. (1977). Discipline and punish: the birth of the prison. New York: Random House. Foucault, M. (1999). Abnormal. New York: Picador.</p><p>Foucault, M. (1978, 1985, 1986). History of sexuality (in 3 volumes: Introduction; The use of pleasure; The care of the self). New York: Random House.</p><p>Fox-Genovese, E. (1991). Feminism without illusions: A critique of individualism. Chapel Hill, NC: University of North Carolina Press.</p><p>Freud, S. (1961/1930). Civilization and its discontents. In J. Strachey (Ed.), The standard edition of the complete psychological works of Sigmund Freud (Vol. XXI, pp. 64-145). London: Hogarth Press. [See also Group psychology and the analysis of the ego. Vol XXVIII, pp. 67-143.] </p><p>Freud, S. (1957/1910/1912/1918). A special type of choice of object made by men (Contributions to the Psychology of love I); On the universal tendency to debasement in the sphere of love (Contributions to the psychology of love II); The taboo of virginity (Contributions to the psychology of love III). In J. Strachey (Ed.), The standard edition of the complete psychological works of Sigmund Freud (Vol XI, pp. 163-108). London: Hogarth Press.</p><p>Freud, S. (1957/1915). Mourning and melancholia. In J. Strachey (Ed.), The standard edition of the complete psychological works of Sigmund Freud (Vol. XIV, pp. 243-258). London: Hogart Press.</p><p>Gergen, K. J. (1994). Realities and relationships: Soundings in social construction. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press. [See also The saturated self: Dilemmas of identity in contemporary life. New York: Basic Books, 1991].</p><p>Giddens, A. (1991). Modernity and self-identity. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press.</p><p>Habermas, J. (1991). Moral consciousness and communicative action. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.: Kerby, A. P. (1991). Narrative and the self. Bloomington, ID: Indiana University Press.</p><p>Kohut, H. (1977). The restoration of the self. New York: International Universities Press. [See also How does analysis cure? (A. Goldberg, Ed.). Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1984.]</p><p>Lockhart, J. S. & Paulhus, D. L. (1988). Self-deception: An adaptive mechanism? Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall. </p><p>Lacan, J. (1968). Ecrits: A selection (Transl. A. Sheridan). New York: W. W. Norton. </p><p>LaCapra, D. (1994). Representing the holocaust: History, theory and trauma. New York: Cornell University Press.</p><p>Lasch, C. (1979). The culture of narcissism. New York: Warner Books.</p><p>Makkreel, R. A. (1992, second edition). Dilthey. Philosopher of the human studies. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.</p><p>Martin, M. W. (Ed.) (1985). Self-deception and self-understanding. New essays in philosophy and psychology. Lawrence, Kansas: University Press of Kansas. </p><p>Mischel, T. (Ed.) (1977). The self: psychological and philosophical issues (pp. 3- 30). Oxford: Basil Blackwell. [See especially G. McCall’s The social looking glass: A sociological perspective on self-development (pp. 274-287); S. Toulmin’s Self knowledge and knowledge of the self (pp. 291-317).] </p><p>Murphy, G. (1975). Outgrowing self-deception (with M. Leeds). New York: Basic Books Incorporated.</p><p>Nussbaum, M, C. (1986). The fragility of goodness: luck ad ethics in Greek tragedy and philosophy. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.</p><p>Nussbaum, M. C. (1990). Love’s knowledge: essays on philosophy and literature. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.</p><p>Nussbaum, M. C. (2001). Upheavals in thought: the intelligence of emotions. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.</p><p>Ricouer, P. (1992). Oneself as another. (Transl. K. Blamey). Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press.</p><p>Ricouer, P. (1970). Freud and philosophy: An essay on interpretation (Transl. D. Savage). New Haven, CT: Yale University Press.</p><p>Taylor, C. (1985). Philosophical papers (Vol. 1). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. [See especially Ch. 1. What is human agency? (13-44); Ch.2. Self- interpreting animals (45-75); and Ch. 4. The concept of a person (pp. 97-114.]</p><p>______</p><p>Some suggested readings for major term paper topic (or choose your own):</p><p>Baldwin, J. (1965). Nobody knows my name: More notes of a native son. New York: Dell. [Or, Go tell it on the mountain (1952); Another country (1960).] Camus, A. (1956). The fall. New York: Vintage. [Or, The stranger (1942); The plague (1948); The rebel (1954); The first man (1995).]</p><p>De Beauvoir, S. (1943). She came to stay. London: Fontana. [Or, The mandarins (1954); Memoirs of a dutiful daughter (1958); The prime of life (1960); Force of circumstance (1963); A very easy death (1964).]</p><p>De Saint Exupery, A. (1942). Flight to Arras. New York: Harcourt & World, Inc. [Or, Night flight (1932); The little prince (1943); Wind, sand and stars ( ).]</p><p>Dostoevsky, F. (1966/1864). Crime and punishment. New York: W. W. Norton. [Or, The possessed (19871); The idiot (1871); The bothers Karamazov (1879).]</p><p>Gide, A. (173/1926). The counterfeiters. New York: Random House. [Or, The immoralist (1902); Strait is the gate (1909).</p><p>Kafka, F. (1948). The penal colony. New York (1919); also, The metamorphosis (1915): New York: Schocken Books.</p><p>Kierkegaard, S. (1954/1843 and 1849). Fear and trembling and The sickness unto death (Transl. W. Lowrie). New York: Anchor Books. [Or, Repetition (1843); The concept of dread (1844); Stages on life’s way (1845); Thoughts and crucial situations in human life (1945).]</p><p>Kristeva, J. (1989). Black sun. New York: Columbia University Press.</p><p>Kristeva, J. (19xx) Powers of horror. New York: Columbia University Press.</p><p>Kristeva, J. (1991). Strangers to ourselves (tr. L. S. Roudiez). New York: Columbia University Press.</p><p>Lessing, D. (1986). Prisons we choose to live inside. Toronto: 1985 Massey lectures CBC Enterprises. [Or, Children of volence (2 volumes) (1964) and other works.] Manguel, A. (1986). Evening games: Chronicles of parents and children. Harmondsworth, Middlesex, England: Peguin.</p><p>Rowley, H. (2005). Simone de Beauvoir and Jean-Paul Sartre Tete-a-tete. New York: Harper Collins. </p><p>Sartre, J. P. (1948). Intimacy. London: Fontana. [Or, Nausea (1938), The flies (1943).]</p><p>Works by Shakespeare, Ionesco, Becket, Pinter, Stendhal, Balzac, Proust, etc. etc.</p><p>______Grading system:</p><p>The following categories apply (borrowed from the University grading system)</p><p>Descriptor Letter grade Point value Percentage 4yr course ______</p><p>A+ 4.0 7% Excellent A 4.0 9% A- 3.7 11%</p><p>B+ 3.3 12% Good B 3.0 18% B- 2.7 17%</p><p>C+ 2.3 12% Satisfactory C 2.0 5% C- 1.7 3%</p><p>Poor D+ 1.3 3% D 1.0 2%</p><p>Fail F 0.0 1%</p><p>______</p><p>In the past I have not assigned grades on the basis of a fixed distribution; however, the recommended distribution, above, does provide a guideline as to what to expect in a senior, larger class.</p><p>Note that I will assign percentage grades to each of your two term papers, average these at the end of the term, and then convert these to letter grades for submission to the registrar.</p><p>______</p><p>King’s University College regulations</p><p>Students should be aware that The King’s University College is committed to the highest standards of academic integrity and honesty. Students are expected to be familiar with these standards and uphold the policies of the university. Students are particularly urged to familiarize themselves with the provisions of the Code of Student Behavior and avoid any behavior that could potentially result in suspicions of cheating, plagiarism, misrepresentation of facts and or participation in such an offense. Academic dishonesty is a serious offense and can result in suspension or expulsion from the university. No student shall represent another’s substantial editorial or compositional assistance on an assignment as their own. No student shall submit in any course or program of study, without written permission of the course instructor, all or a substantial portion of any academic writing, essay, thesis, research report, project assignment, presentation, or poster for which credit has been obtained by the student or which has been or is being submitted by the student in another course or program of the student in The King’s University College.</p><p>LPM/ Jan. MMX</p>

View Full Text

Details

  • File Type
    pdf
  • Upload Time
    -
  • Content Languages
    English
  • Upload User
    Anonymous/Not logged-in
  • File Pages
    10 Page
  • File Size
    -

Download

Channel Download Status
Express Download Enable

Copyright

We respect the copyrights and intellectual property rights of all users. All uploaded documents are either original works of the uploader or authorized works of the rightful owners.

  • Not to be reproduced or distributed without explicit permission.
  • Not used for commercial purposes outside of approved use cases.
  • Not used to infringe on the rights of the original creators.
  • If you believe any content infringes your copyright, please contact us immediately.

Support

For help with questions, suggestions, or problems, please contact us