Psychoanalysis & Literature
Fall 2020
Taught By: Emma Lieber
Section: AX
CRN: 8694
Credits: 4
Psychoanalysis was famously termed “the talking cure” by one of Freud’s first patients. As a practice of putting the self to language in speech, psychoanalysis is intimately bound up with the action of the mouth. But what of the pen? What is the relationship between psychoanalysis and writing, and specifically between psychoanalysis and literature? Freud came up with many early psychoanalytic ideas by carrying out a self-analysis in a series of letters to his colleague, Wilhelm Fleiss; his texts have been taken as works of literature in their own right; the insights of psychoanalysis have often been arrived at with literature in mind. Proceeding from Shoshana Felman’s claim that “literature is the unconscious of psychoanalysis,” we will examine the idea of the written text in/and psychoanalysis, keeping always in mind its complex relation to the spoken word. Assignments will include both critical papers and written “self-analyses,” including the keeping of a dream journal.
College: Eugene Lang College Lib Arts (LC)
Department: Literary Studies (LLST)
Campus: Online (DL)
Course Format: Seminar (R)
Max Enrollment: 21
Add/Drop Deadline: September 14, 2020 (Monday)
Online Withdrawal Deadline: November 22, 2020 (Sunday)
Seats Available: No
Status: Closed*
* Status information is updated every five minutes. The status of this course may have changed since the last update. Open seats may have restrictions that will prevent some students from registering. Updated: 6:17am 2/25/2021 EST