GNCS 182 - Wishful Dreams and Neurotic Obsessions: Reading Freud and His Critics

Semester Offered: Spring
0.5 unit(s)

(Same as GERM 182) The reputation of psychoanalysis has waxed and waned over its 100+ years of existence, but there is no doubt about its revolutionary impact on a myriad of domains ranging from the way we think about human sexuality to methodologies still used in the social sciences and humanities. This course offers a critical introduction to a few of Freud’s foundational texts on sexuality, neurosis, and dream interpretation. In addition to exploring them in their historical context (including Jewish emancipation in 19th-century Austria and the rise of modern antisemitism), the course pursues some of the enduring uses of Freud’s methodologies in literature, feminism, and queer studies as well as some of the controversies that have dogged psychoanalysis from its beginning. Jeffrey Schneider.

Readings and discussions are in English.

Second six-week course.

Two 75-minute periods.

Course Format: CLS