The teacher of this course, James Hollis, argues that we live in a post-Freudian era. We are all influenced by Freud and his theories have affected the way we think about the world and psychology today.<\/p>\n
The gift of Sigmund Freud\u2019s thinking is that there is no longer the sense of egocentricity and sovereignty or its absolute importance. Freud replaced this notion with that of the unconscious. We now know that there is much more going on beneath the surface, and our conscious life is being in service to the unconscious drives and motives. This is an idea that we might take for granted today, but it was a revolutionary thought at the time.<\/p>\n
James Hollis, in his familiar engaging teaching style, eloquently discusses the main Freudian theories and concepts in this course. He offers several reading suggestions along the way, but it is not required that you read them.<\/p>\n
Sigmund Freud was born in Austria in 1856 and is the founder of psychoanalysis. Freud developed a friendship with Carl Jung and remained friends with him for several years. However, they split when there were insurmountable differences in their psychological thinking.<\/p>\n
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Course Overview:<\/strong><\/p>\n Class 1: An introduction to Sigmund Freud<\/b><\/p>\n Freud developed his ideas organically with inspiration from his work with Charcot and Pierre Janet among others. In this class, Hollis gives an overview of Freud\u2019s life and how the people that he met inspired his thinking. First, Hollis explores an overview of ideas popular in the world in which Freud was born, the running ideas at that time, and about psychology and the discovery of the unconscious. This class continues with the developmental process of several core concepts like neurosis, abreaction, catharsis, sexuality, defense mechanisms, libido fixation, instinct and socialization, and more.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Class 2: Anna O. and the Wolfman<\/b><\/p>\n This class explores two historical cases of Freud: Anna O. (Bertha Pappenheim) and The Wolfman (Sergei Pankejeff).<\/p>\n Hollis explains why these cases were important and illustrates Freud\u2019s theory while discussing these cases. These cases contain the foundations of psychoanalysis. Concepts considered in this class are: hysterical symptoms; the notion of repression; the technique of free association; the idea of resistance; defense and conversion neurosis; and transference and countertransference. James Hollis beautifully explains these concepts, while offering a different perspective for looking at these cases. While both cases were described as cured (even though\u00a0 this has been disputed), Hollis encourages us to reexamine the way we look at these cases today. The diagnosis and treatment might not have been correct but these cases, including their \u2018failures\u2019 also contain important information, and significant discoveries came out of them. Hollis will show that several Freudian ideas are indispensable for a conscious life in this class.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Class 3: Freud\u2019s view of dreams<\/b><\/p>\n This class covers Freud\u2019s most important work and his favorite contribution: The Interpretation of Dreams (published in 1899 but dated 1900). One of this book\u2019s contributions is that we see dreams as an extension of the experiences of our daily life and that dreams occur outside the range of consciousness. In the course of our daily life, so many places in our inner life are touched. Impossible to process during the day, phenomena of inner life go on outside consciousness, which could be seen as the dethronement of the human ego.<\/p>\n In this class, Hollis addresses Freud\u2019s dream about his patient Irma, explains what is meant by manifest and latent dream content, repression, interpreting dreams using the free association technique, the dream sensor, displacement, assimilation. Hollis shortly discusses the differences between Freud\u2019s and Jung\u2019s interpretation of dreams.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Class 4:\u00a0 Freud\u2019s view on sexuality<\/b><\/p>\n Sexuality holds a central place in Freud\u2019s theory. In addition, the context in which Freud presented these ideas was such that they were scandalous and controversial, bringing upon him charges of immorality. This class discusses Freud\u2019s book:\u00a0Three essays on the theory of sexuality<\/i>. The three essays that Hollis talks about in this class are\u00a0The Sexual Aberrations<\/i>,\u00a0Infantile Sexuality,<\/i>\u00a0and\u00a0The Transformation of Puberty.<\/i>\u00a0The discussion of these essays includes the explanation of notions such as libido and the Oedipus complex. Hollis reviews Freud\u2019s ideas and the second part of this class looks into Freud\u2019s ideas of the structure of the psyche (id, ego, superego) and how this structure can be understood in relation to sexuality.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Class 5: Totem and Taboo<\/b><\/p>\n The fifth class is centered around Freud\u2019s explorations of totem and taboo on which he published in\u00a0Totem and Taboo: Some Points of Agreement between the Mental Lives of Savages and Neurotics<\/i>.<\/p>\n This class also covers the motive of patricide (killing of the father) and Freud\u2019s assumption that Jung held a death wish against him.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Class 6: The power of the unconscious<\/b><\/p>\n Freud\u2019s ideas about religion will be discussed in this final class using two of his works:\u00a0Civilization and its discontents\u00a0<\/i>and\u00a0Future of an Illusion.<\/i><\/p>\n James Hollis encourages us to look at where we are infantile, where we make fear-ridden decisions, and where we get caught up in magical thinking. He shows us with examples (of our dealing with fears and transferring power to another or Otherness) why the recognition of the power of the unconscious was the true gift in Freud\u2019s thinking.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The teacher of this course, James Hollis, argues that we live in a post-Freudian era. We are all influenced by Freud and his theories have affected the way we think about the world and psychology today. The gift of Sigmund Freud\u2019s thinking is that there is no longer the sense of egocentricity and sovereignty or […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":81,"featured_media":105087,"template":"","level_of_course":[982,981],"class_list":["post-105086","courses","type-courses","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","level_of_course-intermediate","level_of_course-introductory"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n