Freud: on Society and Culture

3 credits · Undergraduate

(3 hrs Lecture) This course, the complement to PSYC-4350(3), is the second half of a survey of Sigmund Freud's work as it appears in The Standard Edition. The concern here is with the social theories Freud developed during the second half of his career. The major writings covered will be Totem and Taboo, The Future of an Illusion, Civilization and Its Discontents, Group Psychology and the Analysis of the Ego, Moses and Monotheism, and the case study of the Wolf Man. A principle theme of these works is the proposition that civilization relies, somewhat precariously, on a renunciation of instinct. While stressing the large titles listed above, the course follows the idea of instinctual ambivalence through various of Freud's shorter writings on sexuality (e.g., "Civilized sexual morality and modern nervous illness") and on literature and art (e.g., "Dostoevsky and parricide"). Restrictions: Honours Form Required. Requisite Courses: PSYC-2102 [prerequisite(s)].