Monash University Arts Graduate Handbook, 1997

ASM4651

The unconscious in social life: psychoanalytic and feminist perspectives

Proposed to be offered next in 1998

Chris Lloyd

12 points
* 2 hours per week
* Caulfield

Objectives Students will develop an understanding of attempts by social theorists to incorporate insights from psychoanalytic thinking into the study of social and cultural life; the capacity to evaluate the usefulness of psychoanalytic thinking for understanding social life; a familiarity with literature that analyses the links between self and other and that theorises self and social life as partially constituted by unconscious processes; the ability to apply modes of thinking that emerge from the variety of dialogues between psychoanalysis and other voices to a range of specific social settings.

Synopsis The content of the subject is the presentation, application and evaluation of those central ideas from a range of psychoanalytic approaches that can most usefully illuminate the operation of unconscious processes at the level of the social. The feminist debate with psychoanalytic theorising will provide one of the foci of the subject, specifically the dialogue about `identity', `subjectivity', `authority', `power', `knowledge' and `fantasy'. A second focus of the subject will be the application (by a variety of authors) of the writings of Melanie Klein, Wilfred Bion and Donald Winnicott, specifically relating to the operation of the `irrational' in the organisation of social life and the boundaries between self and other. Of particular relevance here are the concepts of `envy', `reparation', `defenses', `narcissism', `regression', `projection' and `transference'. A third, albeit less sustained focus, will be provided by the analytical approach to `archetypes'.

Assessment Seminar paper and presentation (2000 words): 30%
* Two projects (3500 words in total): 35%
* Essay (3500 words): 35%

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