310: Inside and Out: Mutual Influences of Psychic and Social Realities
Instructors
Donald Moss, M.D.
November 11, 2026 – February 17, 2027
Wednesdays, 8:40 – 10:00 pm
Co-requisites
Candidates must have or have had at least two cases in supervised psychoanalysis to be eligible for upper level courses.
Course Description
Typically in our work we maintain an exclusive focus on the determining power of psychic reality. Psychic reality is thought to be the foundation of all our psychoanalytic understanding. This course will examine the undertheorized contributions of External Reality to individual experience and psychic development. We will discuss a variety of social formations and their impact on psychic life. In addition to taking on such pathological structures as racism, misogyny and homophobia, the course will explore ideology and false consciousness, the formation of our beliefs, and various forms of violence, including to the natural world. This course aims to uncover the multiple determinants of each of these phenomena, not only in unconscious fantasy, but also in unrecognized social forces. Embedded in this course will be a critique of our usual exclusive emphasis on psychic reality and individual development. Third and Fourth Year students combined.
Educational Objectives
Upon completion of this course, participants will be able to:
- describe how social realities impact the development of our minds.
- discuss the interplay between the psyche and society, including the impact of race,
homophobia and our place in the natural world
Evaluation Method
Each student’s participation in class discussion and demonstration of understanding of the course objectives, readings and clinical 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.
The instructor has elected not to designate a specific date or class session for each reading. The pace of your readings will depend upon the pace of your discussions. The class will try to get through the entire syllabus, but the class will not rush through simply to accomplish that. The instructor wants to be clear that the class will begin with, and spend the first few sessions on, Gonzalez and Bion. After that, the order and pace will be determined by discussion pace and the instructor’s direction.
As a result of this direction by the instructor, the meeting schedule and readings will be separated into two distinct sections.
Class Meeting Schedule
CLASS 1: November 11, 2026
CLASS 2: November 18, 2026
CLASS 3: December 2, 2026
CLASS 4: December 9, 2026
CLASS 5: December 16, 2026
CLASS 6: January 6, 2027
CLASS 7: January 13, 2027
CLASS 8: January 20, 2027
CLASS 9: January 27, 2027
CLASS 10: February 3, 2027
CLASS 11: February 10, 2027
CLASS 12: February 17, 2027
Reading Sections
Section I.
Readings:
Francisco Gonzalez: (2020). Psychoanal. Q., (89)(4):741-770 First World Problems and Gated Communities of the Mind: An Ethics of Place in Psychoanalysis First World Problems and Gated Communities of the Mind
TO BE POSTED
W. R. Bion: Experiences in groups, chapter 2
FIND READING HERE
Section II.
Readings:
Moss, D. (2001) On Hating in the First Person Plural: Thinking Psychoanalytically about Racism, Homophobia, and Misogyny. Journal of the American Psychoanalytic Association 49:1315-1334
FIND READING HERE
T. Adorno: “Qualitative Studies of Prejudice”, pp. 605-637 in The Authoritarian Personality
FIND READING HERE
Davids, M. F. (2009) The Impact of Islamophobia. Psychoanalysis and History 11:175-191
FIND READING HERE
Holmes, D. E. (2021) “I Do Not Have a Racist Bone in My Body”: Psychoanalytic Perspectives on What is Lost and Not Mourned in our Culture’s Persistent Racism. Journal of the American Psychoanalytic Association 69:237-258
TO BE POSTED
Davids, M. F. (2025) Challenges to Maintaining the Analytic Frame During the 2023/24 War on Gaza. International Journal of Psychoanalysis 106:174-183
FIND READING HERE
Section III.
Readings:
“The Story of Women”– a film by Claude Chabrol, Criterion Collection
TO BE POSTED
“Murderous Misogyny”– Paltrow and Zeavin
FIND READING HERE
“When Silence Speaks….– Hyunju Lee
FIND READING HERE
Section IV.
Readings:
Moss, D. (2002) Internalized Homophobia in Men: Wanting in the First Person Singular, Hating in the First Person Plural. The Psychoanalytic Quarterly 71:21-50
FIND READING HERE
Bell, D. (2020). First do no harm. International Journal of Psychoanalysis, 101:1031-1038.
(2020). Int. J. Psychoanal., (101)(5):1019-1030 Thinking psychoanalytically, thinking better: Reflections on transgender Avgi Saketopoulou
TO BE POSTED
Section V.
Readings:
Searles, H. F. (1972). Unconscious Processes in Relation to the Environmental Crisis. Psychoanalytic Review, 59:361-374.
(2020). Psychoanal. Cult. Soc., (25)(2):213-229 The malady of the ideal and the assault on nature Paul Hogget
TO BE POSTED
Section VI.
Readings:
(2022). Int. J. Psychoanal., (103)(4):674-691 Psychoanalytic Reflections on the Conditions of Possibility of Human Destructiveness David Bell
TO BE POSTED
Encountering Representations of Evil, Moss, D.
FIND READING HERE