Psychology
110
Neil Lutsky, Carleton
College:
Class Outline:
Personality in the Clinical
Tradition
I. Why study psychoanalysis?
- To understand current controversies.
- Because psychology is often--erroneously--equated
with psychoanalysis.
- Because psychoanalysis serves as a basic
paradigm in personality and clinical psychology.
- Because psychoanalysis is an important
part of culture.
II. The grounds of
psychoanalysis.
- Scientific
interest in cases of hysteria.
- The case of
Fraulein Elisabeth von R.
- The dynamic model of the psyche.
- Is reality or fantasy
the basis of disturbing reminiscences?
The seduction
theory vs.
Oedipal theory
controversy.
- Psychoanalysis and
"normality". The analysis of errors.
- Why meaning is
individual.
- Why Freudian symbols are
not Freudian.
- Freud's self-analysis,
dream
theory, and
The Interpretation of
Dreams.
- Transference.
III. Four fundamental claims
of Psychoanalysis.
- The significance of unconscious
motivation.
- The nature of the unconscious: infantile,
erotic, and instinctual.
- The ID.
- The psychological dynamics of childhood.
- The Superego.
- Psychosexual development.
- The child in the adult: Are
adult behaviors symbolic fantasies serving defensively to fulfill childhood
wishes?
- The Ego.
- Ego defense mechanisms.
- An application: Robert Waite's
The Psychopathic God Adolf
Hitler.
- Motivated unawareness.
IV. Criticisms and appreciations of
psychoanalytic theory: What are we to make of psychoanalysis?
- Clinical issues.
- The challenge of alternative
clinical theories.
- How generalizable are clinical claims?
- Are the basic facts accurate? e.g.,
Kershaw on Hitler's alleged Jewish grandfather.
- Is clinical interpretation reliable
and valid?
- Scientific issues.
- Can psychoanalysis be tested?
The elasticity of its concepts and hypotheses.
- The state of the evidence:
- Psychoanalytic processes and hypotheses.
- Outcome research in psychotherapy:
Freud's Tally Argument.
- What themes and contributions will endure?