Course Info: CSI-0182

This course provided students with a broad historical, theoretical, and cultural overview of the evolution of psychoanalytic thought that began with Freud, moved through object relations theory and ego psychology, and ended with an exploration of relational perspectives and other contemporary approaches within psychoanalysis. Psychoanalysis encompasses more than a particular form of therapeutic practice; it can also be understood as a kind of sensibility, a fluid, radically open and creative way of perceiving and engaging with the world. In this course, students explored psychoanalysis in both of these senses and, in so doing, acquired an appreciation of how psychoanalytic thinking has changed over time and continues to evolve, while at the same time retains certain core perspectives on the psyche and the therapeutic process. Throughout the semester, students reflected upon their own ideas of selfhood and what it means for human beings to flourish through the various lenses that psychoanalysis offers. Students were required to post weekly responses to the course readings within an electronic forum, bring theory and practice into dialogue through analytic and reflective biweekly essays, and write a final essay employing the thought of three psychoanalytic thinkers that reshaped their understanding of selfhood. Students were evaluated on their comprehension of complex ideas, thoughtful application of these ideas to their own lives, and the support offered for the ideas they expressed.