Psychotherapy and Human Freedom
S05, S06
David Anderegg
Psychoanalytic and other nondirective therapies have been described, over the course of their 100-year history, as both instruments of oppression and instruments of liberation. This course will examine these arguments in a historical fashion. The course will begin with a social and political history of the psychoanalytic movement in Vienna and continue with readings of theoreticians who promoted psychoanalysis as a force for political and social change. Students will read the work of classical-era analysts including Sigmund Freud, Wilhelm Reich, and others, as well as the work of contemporary historians and analysts, including Russell Jacoby and Jonathan Lear. The course will conclude with an attempt at a description of the “ideal” democratic citizen from a psychological point of view.