Theory IV: Structural Theory

PSA - Third Trimester 2006-07
First Year Candidates
11:30 a.m. -12:50 p.m.

Steven Reisner, Ph.D.
Charles Entelis , M.D.

Between 1920 and 1926, Freud revolutionized his own psychoanalytic theory.  Although, his work from this period has often been referred to as the 'structural model,' the period can better be understood as a radical transformation of each aspect of psychoanalytic metapsychology: economic, dynamic and topographical. Freud entirely reworked his theories of the drives, psychic structure, as well as anxiety and defense.  Each of the three texts (Beyond the Pleasure Principle, The Ego and the Id, and Inhibitions, Symptoms, and Anxiety) represents a significant and interrelated step in this radical retheorizing of psychoanalysis. The objective of the course is for students to better understand Freud's later complex theoretical transformations and to appreciate their formative impact on the various schools of psychoanalysis that came afterward.

* Available on P-E-P.

Week 1:            *Reisner, S. (1999). "Freud and Psychoanalysis: Into the Twenty-first                                       Century." JAPA 47:1037 1060

Weeks 2-4:       *Freud. (1920) Beyond the Pleasure Principle.

Weeks 5-7:       *Freud. (1923) The Ego and the Id.

Weeks 8-10:     *Freud. (1926) Symptoms, Inhibitions, and Anxiety.