U1 - Narrative Arts and Contemporary Psychoanalytic Psychotherapy
- Eric Anders
- Dec 9, 2024
- 3 min read
Updated: Dec 11, 2024
Course Description:
This course explores the intersection of narrative arts and contemporary psychoanalysis, focusing on the dynamics of empathy, recognition, and relationality in psychotherapy and storytelling. Drawing on foundational psychoanalytic theories and contemporary revisions, including Jessica Benjamin’s theory of intersubjectivity, Kohut’s emphasis on healthy narcissism and selfobject functions, and Loewald’s conception of transforming “ghosts into ancestors,” students will examine how these ideas manifest in narrative art. The course integrates insights from Attachment Theory, Klein’s developmental theories, and Laplanche’s revision of the seduction theory, highlighting their relevance to both psychotherapy and the complexities of human relationships portrayed in literature, film, and drama.
Through the lens of contemporary psychoanalytic psychotherapy (psychoanalytic theory that actually works), students will analyze how narrative arts—with their psychologically complex characters—illuminate and challenge core psychoanalytic concepts. The course emphasizes the importance of empathy and the transformative potential of storytelling in fostering healthy, non-hierarchical relationships.
Course Objectives:
Understand practical psychoanalytic theories, including intersubjectivity, narcissism, attachment, and development.
Analyze narrative arts as a medium for illustrating and expanding psychoanalytic principles and practice.
Explore the interplay between narrative, empathy, and recognition as foundational to psychological and relational health.
Examine psychoanalytic theories of development, including Klein’s developmental positions, Laplanche’s theory of seduction, and the concepts of mentalization and empathy, and their relevance to character analysis.
Critically assess the ethical and relational dimensions of psychoanalytic approaches to therapy as they apply to the characters of narrative art.
Weekly Schedule:
Week 1: Introduction to Contemporary Psychoanalysis
Readings:
Kohut, The Restoration of the Self (selections).
Pigman, “Freud and the History of Empathy”.
Benjamin, Bonds of Love (selections).
Film: The Piano (dir. Jane Campion, 1993).
Topics:
Introduction to core psychoanalytic concepts: empathy, recognition, and intersubjectivity.
Kohut’s empathy and the encouragement of healthy narcissism and selfobject functions.
Week 2: Recognition and Intersubjectivity
Readings:
Benjamin, Bonds of Love (intersubjectivity and non-hierarchical relating).
Winnicott, Playing and Reality (selections).
Novel: Love in the Time of Cholera by Gabriel García Márquez.
Topics:
The importance of mutual recognition in healthy relationships.
Non-hierarchical bonding and its tensions as depicted in the novel's characters.
Week 3: Attachment and Mentalization
Readings:
Fonagy and Target, Attachment Theory and Psychoanalysis (selections).
Bowlby, Attachment and Loss (selections).
Film: Ordinary People (dir. Robert Redford).
Topics:
Attachment styles and their representation in narratives.
Mentalization versus Kohut’s empathy: similarities and contrasts.
Week 4: Laplanche’s Theory of Seduction and Development
Readings:
Laplanche, Essays on Otherness (selections).
Freud, “Three Essays on the Theory of Sexuality.”
Film: Cries and Whispers (dir. Ingmar Bergman)
Topics:
Laplanche’s revisions of Freud’s seduction theory.
The role of early relational dynamics in shaping the unconscious.
Week 5: Klein’s Developmental Positions and Projective Identification
Readings:
Melanie Klein, “Notes on Some Schizoid Mechanisms.”
Donald Meltzer, The Kleinian Development (selections).
Film: Boyhood (dir. Richard Linklater, 2014).
Topics:
Moving from the paranoid-schizoid to the depressive position.
Projective identification as both defense and developmental process.
Week 6: Turning Ghosts into Ancestors
Readings:
Hans Loewald, “On the Therapeutic Action of Psychoanalysis.”
Richard Ulman and Doris Brothers, The Shattered Self: A Psychoanalytic Study of Trauma (selections).
Film: Paris, Texas (dir. Wim Wenders, 1984).
Topics:
Transforming loss and trauma into meaningful history.
Narrative as a way to process and integrate "ghosts."
Week 7: Empathy and the Ethics of Psychoanalysis
Readings:
Kohut, “The Empathic Mode of Understanding.”
Benjamin, Shadow of the Other (selections).
Novel: Disgrace by J.M. Coetzee.
Topics:
The centrality of empathy in therapy and human connection.
Ethical considerations in psychoanalytic and narrative interpretations.
Week 8: Non-Hierarchical Relationships in Narrative
Readings:
Benjamin, Bonds of Love (selections on recognition).
Hélène Cixous, “The Laugh of the Medusa.”
Play: The Doll’s House by Henrik Ibsen.
Topics:
Power, recognition, and gender dynamics in relationships.
Non-hierarchical recognition in dramatic and psychoanalytic contexts.
Week 9: Attachment Styles and Relational Trauma
Readings:
Bowlby, Attachment and Loss (selections).
Karen Horney, Neurosis and Human Growth (selections).
Film: The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini.
Topics:
Attachment disruptions and their effects on development.
Trauma and relational repair in both narrative and therapy.
Week 10: Integration and Application
Readings:
Jean Laplanche, Life and Death in Psychoanalysis (selections).
Loewald, The Essential Loewald (selections).
Novel: Lincoln in the Bardo by George Saunders.
Topics:
Synthesis of psychoanalytic psychotherapy and narrative analysis.
How narrative fosters empathy, recognition, and transformation.
Assignments:
Weekly Response Papers (20%)Reflections connecting narrative and psychoanalytic themes.
Midterm Essay (30%)A 5–7 page analysis of a narrative illustrating psychoanalytic principles, such as intersubjectivity, narcissism, or attachment.
Final Project (40%)A 10-page paper or creative project synthesizing psychoanalytic theory and narrative analysis.
Participation (10%)Active engagement in discussions and activities.
Comments