102: Freud I: Beginning Theories of Neurosis, The Interpretation of Dreams, and The Topographic Theory
Instructors
Lincoln Hess, M.D.
Seth Kleinerman, M.D.
September 11, 2023 – January 22, 2024
Mondays, 8:35 – 10:00 pm
No class: 9/25, 10/9, 12/25, 1/1, 1/15
Course Description
Course 102 begins our Institute’s two-year curriculum on the contributions of Sigmund Freud’s theoretical and clinical writings to psychoanalysis. In this first of four sequential courses, students and instructors discuss Freud’s psychoanalytic work through 1900, reading selected papers which launch psychoanalysis as a form of therapy, as a model of the mind, and as a method of investigation. The first five classes focus on clinical discoveries, innovations in technique, and theoretical formulations described by Freud between 1892-1899, including his discoveries of defense and unconscious motivation as well as his emerging understanding of neurotic symptom formation. These beginning papers describe clinical bases for recognizing defensive operations and their immediate precipitants in unconscious conflict. The class next dedicates ten sessions to reading and discussing The Interpretation of Dreams, Freud’s most extensive and detailed clinical description and theoretical formulation of unconscious mental functioning and a basis for his Topographic Model of the mind.
Course Objectives
After attending this course, students will be able to:
- Describe Freud’s methods, observations, and his inferences in explaining and treating hysteria, phobias, and obsessions.
- Describe Freud’s method of interpreting dreams and his inferences about the processes that bring about manifest dream content.
- Describe the role of the unconscious in psychological conflict as presented in Freud’s topographical theory.
Evaluation Method
Each student’s participation in class discussion and his or her demonstration of understanding of the course objectives and reading material is assessed in a written evaluation by the instructor(s).
These articles are protected under relevant copyright regulations. They are available in the New York Psychoanalytic Society & Institute Electronic Reserve for your convenience, and for your personal use.
READINGS ARE CONFIRMED.
I. The Cathartic Method and an Emerging Model of the Mind
CLASS 1: September 11, 2023
REQUIRED READINGS
“Hysteria,” in Psychoanalytic Terms & Concepts, 2012, eds. Auchincloss and Samberg, pp. 102-104.
Breuer, J. (1893). Fräulein Anna O, Case Histories from Studies on Hysteria. The Standard Edition of the Complete Psychological Works of Sigmund Freud, 2:19-47.
Breuer, J. & Freud, S. (1893). On The Psychical Mechanism of Hysterical Phenomena: Preliminary Communication from Studies on Hysteria. The Standard Edition of the Complete Psychological Works of Sigmund Freud, 2:1-17. [Read pp. 3-17]
II. The First Full Analysis without hypnosis and discovery of motivated “resistance offered by the patient in the reproduction of … memories”
CLASS 2: September 18, 2023
REQUIRED READINGS
“Topographic Theory,” in Psychoanalytic Terms & Concepts, 2012, eds. Auchincloss and Samberg, pp. 265-266.
Freud, S. (1893). Fräulein Elisabeth von R, Case Histories from Studies on Hysteria. The Standard Edition of the Complete Psychological Works of Sigmund Freud, Volume II (1893-1895): Studies on Hysteria, 135-181 [Read p 135 – first full para on p 169]
[Elizabeth’s treatment began late 1892. The case was written in early 1894.]
III. Mechanisms and Motivations
CLASS 3: October 2, 2023
REQUIRED READINGS
Bazan, A. (2017). Alpha Synchronization as a Brain Model for Unconscious Defense: An Overview of the Work of Howard Shevrin and His Team. Int. J. Psycho-Anal., 98(5):1443-1473. [Read only the abstract unless you wish to read further.]
Freud, S. (1894). The Neuro-Psychoses of Defence. The Standard Edition of the Complete Psychological Works of Sigmund Freud, Volume III (1893-1899): Early Psycho-Analytic Publications, 41-61.
Freud, S. (1896). Further Remarks on the Neuro-Psychoses of Defence. The Standard Edition of the Complete Psychological Works of Sigmund Freud, Volume III (1893-1899): Early Psycho-Analytic Publications, 157-185. [Read pp. 159-174]
SUPPLEMENTAL READINGS
Berlin, H. A. (2011). The Neural Basis of the Dynamic Unconscious. Neuropsychoanalysis, 13:5-31.
IV. Psychoanalysis as a Method of Investigation
CLASS 4: October 16, 2023
REQUIRED READINGS
Freud, S. (1893). The Psychotherapy of Hysteria from Studies on Hysteria. The Standard Edition of the Complete Psychological Works of Sigmund Freud, Volume II (1893-1895): Studies on Hysteria, 253-305.
Freud, S. (1896). The Aetiology of Hysteria. The Standard Edition of the Complete Psychological Works of Sigmund Freud, Volume III (1893-1899): Early Psycho-Analytic Publications, 187-221. [Read starting on page 195 with first full paragraph through to page 199 through first full paragraph, and on page 210 from the seventh line from the bottom through line ten on page 211.]
Shevrin, H., Snodgrass, M., Brakel, L.A.W., Kushwaha, R., Kalaida, N.L. and Bazan, A. (2013). Subliminal unconscious conflict alpha power inhibits supraliminal conscious symptom experience. Front. Hum. Neurosci. 7:544. doi: 10.3389/fnhum.2013.00544 [Please read the abstract, and any more you wish to read of the article.]
V. Suppressed Content and a Relation to Memory and Fantasy
CLASS 5: October 23, 2023
REQUIRED READINGS
Freud, S. (1906). My Views on the Part Played by Sexuality in the Aetiology of the Neuroses (1906 [1905]). The Standard Edition of the Complete Psychological Works of Sigmund Freud, Volume VII (1901-1905): A Case of Hysteria, Three Essays on Sexuality and Other Works, 269-279. [Read starting with line 5 on page 274 through line 7 on page 276, including footnote on page 275.]
Freud, S. (1899). Screen Memories. The Standard Edition of the Complete Psychological Works of Sigmund Freud, Volume III (1893-1899): Early Psycho-Analytic Publications, 299-322.
VI. Discovering the Method of Interpreting Dreams
CLASS 6: October 30, 2023
REQUIRED READINGS
Freud, S. (1900). The Method of Interpreting Dreams: An Analysis of a Specimen Dream. In The Interpretation of Dreams. The Standard Edition of the Complete Psychological Works of Sigmund Freud, Volume IV (1900): The Interpretation of Dreams, 96-121. [Read first full para on p 100 thru p 121]
Freud, S. (1900). The Dream Work. In The Interpretation of Dreams. The Standard Edition of the Complete Psychological Works of Sigmund Freud, Volume IV (1900): The Interpretation of Dreams, 292-296. [Read dream of Irma’s injection on pp 292-296.]
VII. Opposing Forces
CLASS 7: November 6, 2023
REQUIRED READINGS
Freud, S. (1900). A Dream is the Fulfillment of a Wish. In The Interpretation of Dreams. The Standard Edition of the Complete Psychological Works of Sigmund Freud, Volume IV (1900): The Interpretation of Dreams, 122-133.
Freud, S. (1900). Distortion in Dreams. In The Interpretation of Dreams. The Standard Edition of the Complete Psychological Works of Sigmund Freud, Volume IV (1900): The Interpretation of Dreams, 134-162.
VIII. Material and Sources of Dreams
CLASS 8: November 13, 2023
REQUIRED READINGS
Freud, S. (1900). Recent and Indifferent Material in Dreams. In The Interpretation of Dreams. The Standard Edition of the Complete Psychological Works of Sigmund Freud, Volume IV (1900): The Interpretation of Dreams, 163-183. (omitting the last para. on p. 166 and resuming with second para on p. 169)
Freud, S. (1900). The Dream of the Botanical Monograph. In The Interpretation of Dreams. The Standard Edition of the Complete Psychological Works of Sigmund Freud, Volume IV (1900): The Interpretation of Dreams, 282-284.
Freud, S. (1900). Infantile Material. In The Interpretation of Dreams. The Standard Edition of the Complete Psychological Works of Sigmund Freud, Volume IV (1900): The Interpretation of Dreams, 189-219. [Read pp 189-199 and pp 218-219.]
IX. The Dream-Work: Latent Dream Thoughts transform into Manifest Dream Content
CLASS 9: November 20, 2023
REQUIRED READINGS
Freud, S. (1900). Condensation. In The Interpretation of Dreams. The Standard Edition of the Complete Psychological Works of Sigmund Freud, Volume IV (1900): The Interpretation of Dreams, 277-302. [Read pp 277-296 and pp 298-302]
Freud, S. (1900). Displacement. In The Interpretation of Dreams. The Standard Edition of the Complete Psychological Works of Sigmund Freud, Volume IV (1900): The Interpretation of Dreams, 305-309.
X. The Dream-Work
CLASS 10: November 27, 2023
REQUIRED READINGS
Freud, S. (1900). The Means of Representation in Dreams and Considerations of Representability. In The Interpretation of Dreams. The Standard Edition of the Complete Psychological Works of Sigmund Freud, Volume IV (1900): The Interpretation of Dreams, [Read 310-338; 339 through the top half of p. 344]
Freud, S. (1900). Calculations in Dreams. In The Interpretation of Dreams. The Standard Edition of the Complete Psychological Works of Sigmund Freud, Volume IV (1900): The Interpretation of Dreams, 414-416.
XI. The Dream-Work
CLASS 11: December 4, 2023
REQUIRED READINGS
Freud, S. (1900). Speeches in Dreams. In The Interpretation of Dreams. The Standard Edition of the Complete Psychological Works of Sigmund Freud, Volume IV (1900): The Interpretation of Dreams, [Read 421-425.]
Freud, S. (1900). Affects in Dreams. In The Interpretation of Dreams. The Standard Edition of the Complete Psychological Works of Sigmund Freud, Volume IV (1900): The Interpretation of Dreams, 460-487. [Read pp. 460-473 (p. 460 – top para on p. 473) and pp. 479-487 (first full para on p. 479 – p. 487)]
Freud, S. (1900). Secondary Revision. In The Interpretation of Dreams. The Standard Edition of the Complete Psychological Works of Sigmund Freud, Volume IV (1900): The Interpretation of Dreams, 488-508. [Read pp 488-501 (through top partial para on p 501) and 506-508 (starting with first full para on p 506)]
XII. The Unconscious, The Topographic Model of the Mind, and The Psychology of Dream Processes
CLASS 12: December 11, 2023
REQUIRED READINGS
Freud, S. (1912). A Note on the Unconscious in Psycho-Analysis. The Standard Edition of the Complete Psychological Works of Sigmund Freud 12:255-266. [Read pp 260-266]
Freud, S. (1900). Introduction and The Forgetting of Dreams. In The Standard Edition of the Complete Psychological Works of Sigmund Freud, Volume IV (1900): The Interpretation of Dreams. [Read pp. 509-532]
XIII. The Unconscious, The Topographic Model of the Mind, and The Psychology of Dream Processes
CLASS 13: December 18, 2023
REQUIRED READINGS
Freud, S. (1900). Regression and Wish-fulfilment. In The Standard Edition of the Complete Psychological Works of Sigmund Freud, Volume IV (1900): The Interpretation of Dreams. [Read pp 533-564]
XIV. The Unconscious, The Topographic Model of the Mind, and The Psychology of Dream Processes
CLASS 14: January 8, 2024
REQUIRED READINGS
Freud, S. (1900). Wish-Fulfilment and the Primary and Secondary Processes. In The Standard Edition of the Complete Psychological Works of Sigmund Freud, Volume IV (1900): The Interpretation of Dreams. [Read pp 564-572 and pp 588-609]
SUPPLEMENTAL READINGS
Solms, M. (2017). What is “the unconscious,” and where is it located in the brain? A neuropsychoanalytic perspective. Ann. N.Y. Acad. Sci., 1406: 90-97.
XV. The Unconscious, The Topographic Model of the Mind, and The Psychology of Dream Processes
CLASS 15: January 22, 2024
REQUIRED READINGS
Freud, S. (1900). The Unconscious and Consciousness. In The Standard Edition of the Complete Psychological Works of Sigmund Freud, Volume IV (1900): The Interpretation of Dreams. [Read pp 610-621]