HYM4150

Freud, sexuality and history

Offered subject to approval

Esther Faye

8 or 12 points -One 2-hour seminar per week -First semester -Clayton

Objectives Students successfully completing this subject should develop an understanding of the historical and theoretical significance of psychoanalysis since its invention by Freud at the end of the nineteenth century, and an understanding of its relationship to modern forms of historiography. They will be expected to become familiar with the major historical and theoretical debates within and about psychoanalysis as these developed in the course of the twentieth century, and to develop the critical reading skills with which to interpret and assess these debates.

Synopsis Jacques Lacan has likened the import of Freud's discovery of the unconscious for an understanding of 'man' and 'his' history to the revolution of thought occasioned by the discoveries of Copernicus. Other thinkers have been more concerned to locate Freud's invention of psychoanalysis within the development of modern forms of discipline and subjection. Of all the theories or practices which have come to be recognised as profoundly part of the problematic of modernity, psychoanalysis has been most subject to criticism and debate. This subject approaches the question of the historical and theoretical significance of psychoanalysis's emergence and development as a body of thought and a set of practices, through a consideration of the major debates which have taken place both within the field of psychoanalysis and outside it, including those within contemporary feminism and those involving French philosophers and historians such as Michel Foucault, Jacques Derrida and Michel de Certeau. Key themes in the subject include the relationship of psychoanalysis to science, history, femininity, subjectivity and governmentality.

Assessment (8 points) Research essay (4000 words): 70% -Take-home examination (2 hours): 30%
Assessment (12 points) Research essay (4000 words): 40% -Historiographical essay (3000 words): 30% -Take-home examination (2 hours): 30%

Recommended texts

Appignanesi L and Forrester J Freud's women Virago, 1993
Friedan B The feminine mystique Penguin, 1965
Foucault M History of sexuality vol. 1, Penguin, 1981
Gay P Freud: A life for our time Norton, 1988
Mitchell J Psychoanalysis and feminism Penguin, 1975
Rose J Sexuality in the field of vision Verso, 1986

Back to the 1999 Arts Handbook