Derek Stanovsky | Watauga College | Interdisciplinary Studies | Appalachian State University
Tangent: Freud
Spring 2007

IDS 2205-103
TR 3:30-4:45
LLR 221

Sigmund Freud: Resources and Links
Freud Blog

Dr. Derek Stanovsky
Office: LLA 125  Office Phone: 262-2441
Office Hours: TBA
E-mail: stanovskydj@appstate.edu
Home page: www.appstate.edu/~stanovskydj
Sigmund Freud
Warhol's Freud
Course Description:
Sex, death, dreams, jokes, war, madness, civilization -- Freudian theory has provided one of the most far reaching, powerful, provocative, influential, and illuminating accounts or our psyches, our culture, and ourselves. Freud's legacy extends far beyond the realm of clinical psychology with literature, film, anthropology, art, sociology, ethics, and virtually every other field of study having felt the influence of his ideas. This course provides an introduction to the breadth of psychoanalytic theory through Freud's own writings.

Textbooks:
Freud, Sigmund. The Interpretation of Dreams. New York: Avon, 1980.
    Three Essays on the Theory of Sexuality. New York: Basic Books, 2000.
    Civilization and Its Discontents. New York: W. W. Norton, 1989.
Brown, Norman O. Life Against Death. Middleton, CT: Wesleyan University Press, 1985.

Course Requirements:
The most important requirements for this course are regular class attendance, preparation, and participation. You should do all the reading and come prepared to ask and answer questions each day. Keeping this in mind, the formal grading requirements are:

Class Participation 25%
Dream Journal and Dream Project 25%
Midterm Exam 25%
Final Symposium 25%
The class participation portion of your grade will be based on regular class attendance and participation as well as on periodic homeworks and in-class individual and small group assignments. It will also be based on your active participation in the online class blog.

Two absences are allowed during the semester. Each additional absence will lower your class participation grade by one letter grade. More than six absences and/or failure to complete any of the written assignments detailed below are grounds for failing the course.

You will keep a Dream Journal during the semester, either posted to our online blog or privately. The class will be divided into groups, and each group will create a project representing one of Freud's own dreams and one of your own dreams along with their Freudian interpretations using video, skits, photos, drawings, or some other medium. These group projects may be presented during the LLR research day.

There will be an in-class midterm exam. Make-up exams are not normally given. Exceptions may be made for genuine medical emergencies or other similarly serious personal difficulties, although in such cases the format may be changed from an exam to a paper.

There will be a final symposium during the regularly scheduled final exam period in which groups will present their final projects. More information on this assignment will be handed out at a later date.

With regard to papers and all other assignments for this course, you are expected to know and follow the current ASU code of academic integrity.

Tentative Course Schedule:
T 1/9 Introductions. Begin Dream Journal. You may share your dreams, if you choose, on our class blog.
TH 1/11 Read Freud's Encyclopedia Britannica article on Psychoanalysis [2, 3, 4] and the biographical introduction by Peter Gay in Civilization and Its Discontents, pp. ix-xxii.

T 1/16 Brown, "The Disease Called Man," and "Neurosis and History," pp. 3-19.
TH 1/18 The Interpretation of Dreams, "Preface to the First Edition," and Chapter I, "The Scientific Literature," pp. xxiii-xxiv, 35-127.

T 1/23 Chapter II, "A Specimen Dream," pp. 128-154.
TH 1/25 Chapters III & IV, "Wish Fulfillment" and "Distortion," pp. 155-195.

T 1/30 Hitchcock’s Spellbound shown in class. Brown, "Sexuality and Childhood" and "The Self and the Other: Narcissus," pp. 23-54.
TH 2/1 Hitchcock’s Spellbound concluded. Brown, "Art and Eros" and "Language and Eros," pp. 55-73.

T 2/6 Group presentations from Chapter V, "Typical Dreams," pp. 196-310.
TH 2/8 Chapter VI, "The Dream-Work," pp. 311-319, 340-344, 374-85 and 526-46.

T 2/13 Chapter VII, "The Dream-Processes," A-C, pp. 547-611.
TH 2/15 Chapter VII, "The Dream-Processes," D-F, pp. 612-660.

T 2/20 Group work.
TH 2/22 Group work.

T 2/27 Dream Projects Due.
TH 3/1  Three Essays on the Theory of Sexuality, "The Sexual Aberrations," pp. 1-38. 

T 3/6 "Infantile Sexuality," pp. 39-72. Brown, "Instintual Dualism and Instinctual Dialectics," pp. 77-86.
TH 3/8 TBA

SPRING BREAK

T 3/20"The Transformations of Puberty," pp. 73-109. Brown, "Death, Time, and Eternity," pp. 87-109.
TH 3/22 Brown, "Death and Childhood," pp. 110-134.

T 3/27 Discussion / Review.
TH 3/29 Midterm Exam.

T 4/3 Civilization and Its Discontents, Chapters I & II, pp. 10-36. Brown, "The Ambiguities of Sublimation," pp. 137-144.
TH 4/5 Civilization and Its Discontents,Chapters III-V, pp. 37-74. Brown, "Couch and Culture," pp.145-156.

EASTER BREAK
TH 4/12 Chapters VI-VIII, pp. 75-112. Brown, "Apollo and Dionysus," pp. 157-176. Final Group Projects Assigned.

T 4/17 Brown, "The Excremental Vision" and "The Protestant Era" pp. 179-233. 
TH 4/19 Brown, "Filthy Lucre" and "The Resurrection of the Body," pp. 234-322.

T 4/24 Group Work. 

Presentation of Dream Projects and/or Final Group Projects at Research Day.

Final Symposium during our regularly scheduled final exam period: Tuesday, May 1, 3:00-5:30 p.m.