Adult Psychoanalytic Curriculum

Theory II: Topographical Model
Barry Opatow, M.D. and Donald Moss, M.D., Winter 2004-05

This first course in theory deals for the most part with the revolutionary conception with which Freud founded psychoanalysis - the theories of the instinctual drive and the dynamic unconscious. We will read foundational texts of drive theory and the theory of the mind. We will use this inquiry also to explore what theorizing is in psychoanalysis.

The drive is the mainspring of wishing, it is the mind's active principle, the subversive, sexual constituent of the unconscious. This comprises the radical core of psychoanalysis, an inner nucleus supplemented, but never surpassed, by all subsequent theory.

Weeks 1-5:

Freud, S.

(1900) The Interpretation of Dreams. Chapter 7. "The Psychology of the Dream Processes". S.E. 5: 509-621.

Week 6:

Freud, S.

(1905) Three Essays on the Theory of Sexuality. S.E. 7. Chapter 1: The Sexual Aberrations, pp. 135- 172.

Week 7:

Freud, S.

(1905) Three Essays, Chapter 2: Infantile Sexuality, pp. 173-206.

Week 8:

Freud, S.

(1905) Three Essays, Chapters 3-4: Transformations of Puberty;
Summary, pp. 207-243.

Weeks 9-10:

Freud, S.

(1895) Project for a Scientific Psychology. S.E. 1: 294-297; 317-327.

Freud, S.

(1911) Formulations on the two principles of Mental Functioning.
S.E. 12: 213-227.

Weeks 11-12:

Freud, S.

(1915) "Instincts and their Vicissitudes," S.E. 14: 117-140.

Other Resources
	NYU School of Medicine
	NYU Medical Center
	Psychoanalytic Association of New York