This course assumes students have taken at least one introductory course in psychology and are generally familiar with the basic concepts of Freudian psychology. The course explores the state of medicine in 19th Century Viennese society to help students understand the culture
in which Sigmund Freud laid the foundations of modern psychology. The ultimate goal of the course is to help students explore the relevance of psychoanalysis and its offshoots, such as existential psychology and psychodynamic psychotherapy to the issues that concern contemporary culture. The course invites students to address such questions as the following. Is psychoanalysis still a viable means of therapy in the 21st century? Can a psychoanalytical or psychodynamic perspective help resolve conflicts of contemporary life such as immigration and questions of cultural identity, gender, sexual orientation, etc? The course includes field study of historical sites relevant to the emergence of psychoanalysis in Vienna. Contemporary practitioners of psychoanalysis, psychodynamic therapy, and their detractors as humanistic psychology as developed in a Person Centred Approach by Carl R. Rogers are invited into the classroom to engage students in debate with practicing professionals.
Prerequisites:
None
Learning outcomes:
A student is expected to be able to know various approaches from classical Psychoanalysis and Existential Therapy. He or she is able to interpret one case study according to these basic theories. For the completion of the course participants should be able to contribute with a carefully written statement of advantages and disadvantages of a specific approach to a case study or contemporary issues as immigration and cultural identity, gender, poverty.
Method of presentation:
Lectures, discussions, Video demonstrations, excursions. The course will be held in the way of an open reading, reflecting, discussing, learning seminar. Openness for discussion and personal involvement will be essential for the course as the active preparation for each class meeting: reading assignments, personal reflection units are important. The timetable and the program below will be adjusted to our individual interests and needs. Attendance of the class meetings and thorough preparation of the readings for each class meeting is essential for a successful participation in the seminar.
Required work and form of assessment:
Oral class presentation (40%);
written midterm (30%);
written final paper (30%)
content:
1. A European and an American view to study personality, creativity and culture.
2. A critical comparison: Psychodynamic approach versus Existential / Humanistic approach.
3. A critical reflection of some results in recent cultural studies
4. The course includes a visit to Freud Museum, video demonstrations, and eventually a visit to Museum of Anatomy and Pathology (former - and 1st psychiatric clinic) and current exhibitions at the museum of history of medicine or eventually a crypt (Michaelergruft).
Session 1:
Getting to know ourselves: Introduction to the seminar
Intro into Psychoanalysis. From 19th into the 21st century.
Freud [1918]: On creativity and the unconscious. Papers on the Psychology of Art, Literature, Love
Religion. Contributions to the Psychology of Love. Harper & Row (1958), Taboo of Virginity (p.187-205)
Session 2:
Eros and Thanatos
Freud: Civilization and its discontents (p.45-70) A visit to the Freud Museum (or to be postponed)
The Royal Road. In: Spinelli, E.: Tales of Un-Knowing (p.53-78)
Session 3:
Freud’s view on Culture and Art (Totem and Taboo) (p.1-20, p. 21-86)
John M. Shlien: A countertheory of transference. (p. 93 -119) To lead an honourable life. (ed. Pete
Sanders) PCCS Books, Ross-on Wye, 2003
Session 4:
Gender and sexual orientation
Sexually driven or reasoning?
Freud: Contributions to the Psychology of Love. [1910], (162-186)
3rd Viennese School of Psychoanalysis - Viktor Frankl: Man’s search of meaning. Logotherapy. In: Existential Therapies. Sage Publ. London, Thousand Oaks, New Delhi, 2006 (p.51-62)
Session 5:
The view of Otto Rank: The trauma of birth
(p.51 – 98) “A much stronger repression than even infantile sexuality”. Rank: Psychoanalysis as a cultural factor. (In: Kramer p.85-95)
Session 6: Midterm
In the second part of the class we focus on the Existential and Humanistic Therapy. In particular the work of Carl R. Rogers, Rollo May, Jerold Bozarth, Mick Cooper, Ernesto Spinelli and others.
Session 7:
Humanistic and Existential Aspects of Personality
The Carl Rogers Reader
Chapter 16 (p. 219-235). The Necessary and Sufficient Conditions of Personality Change
Chapter 27 A Therapist’s View of the Good Life: The Fully Functioning Person
Joseph, S. Worsley, R. A Positive Psychology of Mental Health: The person centred perspective. (p.348-
358). In: Joseph, Worsley (eds.)
Video demonstration, empathy labs
Session 8:
Mick Cooper: Existential Philosophy. In: Existential Therapies. (p.6-34) Daseinsanalysis. In: Cooper op. cit. (p.35-50)
Maurice Friedman: Dialogue and the Human Image. Beyond Humanistic Psychology. Psychology as a
Human Science. (p.9-34).
James Bugenthal. The Art of the Psychotherapist. Therapist Presence and the Alliance. In: Bugenthal, (p.49-66)
Session 9:
Poverty, Immigration, and Psychology:
Mearns, Dave: Psychotherapy - The politics of liberation or collaboration? A career critically reviewed. In: Proctor, Gillian; Cooper, Mick; Sanders Pete; Malcolm Beryl (eds.). Politicizing the person-centred
approach. An agenda for social change. PCCS Books Ross-on-Wye, 2006 (p.127-142)
Stipsits, Reinhold: Transformation in Transilvania. In: Proctor, Gillian; Cooper, Mick; Sanders Pete; Malcolm Beryl (eds.). Politicizing the person-centred approach. An agenda for social change. PCCS Books Ross-on-Wye, 2006 (p.244-253).
Imagine: Expression in the Service of Humanity. Special Edition: Journal of Humanistic Psychology. Volume 47 / 3, July 2007
Visit to the Museum of Pathology
Session 10: Schneider, Kirk, J.
Visions of Recovery: Social, Vocational, and Educational (p.57-86) In: Rediscovery of Awe. Splendor, mystery, and the fluid center of life. Paragon House, St. Paul, Minnesota, 2004
A return to Basics: Awe Based Education (p.87-110) In: Rediscovery of Awe. Splendor, mystery, and the fluid center of life. Paragon House, St. Paul, Minnesota, 2004
Session 11:
Alienation and the New Media
Alienation, the Self and Television: Psychological Life in Mass Culture. In: Classics in Humanistic Psychology.
Sanders, Pete; The Spectacular Self: Alienation as the lifestyle choice of a free world, endorsed by psychotherapists (p. 95-114). In: politicizing the person-centred approach. an agenda for social change. Proctor, Cooper, Sanders, Malcolm (eds.).
A Life divided. In: Spinelli p.137-160
Session 12:
Jean Houston: Myths of the Future. In: Classics in Humanistic Psychology. (p.43-58) Transpersonal Psychology: Self as Spirit, Self as Miracle, Self as Other Vile Bodies. In: Spinelli, E. p. 29-52
Freud, Sigmund
On creativity and the unconscious. Papers on the Psychology of Art, Literature, Love Religion. Contributions to the Psychology of Love. Harper & Row (1958) [1910], [1918], (p.162-205) Civilization and its Discontents. Penguin Books, London 2002 [1930],(p.45-70)
Totem and Taboo. Routledge, London, New York, 2006 [1913] The Horror of Incest (p.1-20)
Taboo and Emotional Ambivalence (p.21-86)
Kirschenbaum, Henderson(eds.)
The Carl Rogers Reader
Chapter 16 (p. 219-235). The Necessary and Sufficient Conditions of Personality Change
Chapter 27 A Therapist´s View of the Good Life: The Fully Functioning Person
Kirschenbaum, Howard
The Life and Work of Carl R. Rogers. PCCS Books. Ross-on Wye, 2003
Rank, Otto
The trauma of birth and its importance for psychoanalytic therapy (p.78-84).
Psychoanalysis as a cultural factor (p.85-95) In: A Psychology of Difference. The American Lectures. Selected, edited and introduced by Robert Kramer. With a foreword by Rollo May. Princeton, University
Press New Jersey. 1996
Spinelli, Ernest
Tales of Un-Knowing. Eight Stories of Existential Therapy. New York University Press. 1997
Recommended readings:
Mearns, Dave
Psychotherapy: The politics of liberation or collaboration? A career critically reviewed (p.127-142). In: politicizing the person-centred approach. an agenda for social change. Proctor, Cooper, Sanders, Malcolm (eds.). PCCS Books Ross-on-Wye, 2006
Sanders, Pete
The Spectacular Self: Alienation as the lifestyle choice of a free world, endorsed by psychotherapists (p.
95- 114). In: politicizing the person-centred approach. an agenda for social change. Proctor, Cooper, Sanders, Malcolm (eds.). PCCS Books Ross-on-Wye, 2006
Schneider, Kirk, J.
Visions of Recovery: Social, Vocational, and Educational (p.57-86) In: Rediscovery of Awe. Splendor, mystery, and the fluid center of life. Paragon House, St. Paul, Minnesota, 2004
A return to Basics: Awe Based Education (p.87-110) In: Rediscovery of Awe. Splendor, mystery, and the fluid center of life. Paragon House, St. Paul, Minnesota, 2004
Shlien, John, M.
A countertheory of transference. In: To lead an honorable Life. Invitations to think about Client-Centered Therapy and the Person-Centered Approach. edited by Pete Sanders. PCCS Books Ross-on Wye, 2003. (p.93-119)
Stipsits, Reinhold
Transformation in Transilvania (p.244-253). In: Proctor, Gillian; Cooper, Mick; Sanders Pete; Malcolm Beryl (eds.). Politicizing the person-centred approach. An agenda for social change. PCCS Books Ross- on-Wye, 2006
Stephen Joseph, Richard Worsley (eds.);
Person-Centred Psychopathology. A positive psychology of mental health. PCCS Books, Ross on Wye.
2005
Brief Biography of Instructor:
Reinhold Stipsits earned a Ph.D. in Education from the University of Vienna. He is currently Professor of Social Pedagogic and Humanistic Pedagogy at Vienna, where since 1998 he has taught seminars and lectures on Education and Exclusion, Generations and Normality. He pursued studies and teaching experience in social issues and transformation at the Babes Bolyai University in Cluj-Napoca, (Romania)
2004-2006. He studied and worked with Carl R. Rogers and is a licensed psychotherapist (person- centered psychotherapy) since 1990. Current research areas focus on youth, poverty and intercultural issues of transformation. Among his more recent publications: Jugend im Fokus. Pädagogische Beiträge zur Vergewisserung einer Generation. Löcker, Verlag Wien, (Bogner/Stipsits, eds.) (2008); Transformation in Transylvania. In: politicizing the person centred approach. an agenda for social change. (Proctor, Cooper, Sanders, Malcom (eds) PCCS Books Ross-on Wye, 2006. p.244-253. Hoffnungslose Jugend? Zur Frage nach der Bedeutung von Jugend und ihren Aufstiegshoffnungen bei Elfriede Jelinek und Paulus Hochgatterer. In: Koller/Rieger-Ladich, (eds), (2009), Figurationen von Adoleszenz. Transcript Verlag, Bielefeld. p.65-77. Mit anderen Augen. An anderen Orten. Mit anderen Worten. Reportagen aus Temeswar und Wien (Editor: R. Stipsits) Wien (2009).
Psychoanalysis, Psychodynamic Therapy and Humanistic Psychology in Contemporary Culture
This course assumes students have taken at least one introductory course in psychology and are generally familiar with the basic concepts of Freudian psychology. The course explores the state of medicine in 19th Century Viennese society to help students understand the culture
in which Sigmund Freud laid the foundations of modern psychology. The ultimate goal of the course is to help students explore the relevance of psychoanalysis and its offshoots, such as existential psychology and psychodynamic psychotherapy to the issues that concern contemporary culture. The course invites students to address such questions as the following. Is psychoanalysis still a viable means of therapy in the 21st century? Can a psychoanalytical or psychodynamic perspective help resolve conflicts of contemporary life such as immigration and questions of cultural identity, gender, sexual orientation, etc? The course includes field study of historical sites relevant to the emergence of psychoanalysis in Vienna. Contemporary practitioners of psychoanalysis, psychodynamic therapy, and their detractors as humanistic psychology as developed in a Person Centred Approach by Carl R. Rogers are invited into the classroom to engage students in debate with practicing professionals.
None
A student is expected to be able to know various approaches from classical Psychoanalysis and Existential Therapy. He or she is able to interpret one case study according to these basic theories. For the completion of the course participants should be able to contribute with a carefully written statement of advantages and disadvantages of a specific approach to a case study or contemporary issues as immigration and cultural identity, gender, poverty.
Lectures, discussions, Video demonstrations, excursions. The course will be held in the way of an open reading, reflecting, discussing, learning seminar. Openness for discussion and personal involvement will be essential for the course as the active preparation for each class meeting: reading assignments, personal reflection units are important. The timetable and the program below will be adjusted to our individual interests and needs. Attendance of the class meetings and thorough preparation of the readings for each class meeting is essential for a successful participation in the seminar.
Oral class presentation (40%);
written midterm (30%);
written final paper (30%)
1. A European and an American view to study personality, creativity and culture.
2. A critical comparison: Psychodynamic approach versus Existential / Humanistic approach.
3. A critical reflection of some results in recent cultural studies
4. The course includes a visit to Freud Museum, video demonstrations, and eventually a visit to Museum of Anatomy and Pathology (former - and 1st psychiatric clinic) and current exhibitions at the museum of history of medicine or eventually a crypt (Michaelergruft).
Session 1:
Getting to know ourselves: Introduction to the seminar
Intro into Psychoanalysis. From 19th into the 21st century.
Freud [1918]: On creativity and the unconscious. Papers on the Psychology of Art, Literature, Love
Religion. Contributions to the Psychology of Love. Harper & Row (1958), Taboo of Virginity (p.187-205)
Session 2:
Eros and Thanatos
Freud: Civilization and its discontents (p.45-70) A visit to the Freud Museum (or to be postponed)
The Royal Road. In: Spinelli, E.: Tales of Un-Knowing (p.53-78)
Session 3:
Freud’s view on Culture and Art (Totem and Taboo) (p.1-20, p. 21-86)
John M. Shlien: A countertheory of transference. (p. 93 -119) To lead an honourable life. (ed. Pete
Sanders) PCCS Books, Ross-on Wye, 2003
Session 4:
Gender and sexual orientation
Sexually driven or reasoning?
Freud: Contributions to the Psychology of Love. [1910], (162-186)
3rd Viennese School of Psychoanalysis - Viktor Frankl: Man’s search of meaning. Logotherapy. In: Existential Therapies. Sage Publ. London, Thousand Oaks, New Delhi, 2006 (p.51-62)
Session 5:
The view of Otto Rank: The trauma of birth
(p.51 – 98) “A much stronger repression than even infantile sexuality”. Rank: Psychoanalysis as a cultural factor. (In: Kramer p.85-95)
Session 6: Midterm
In the second part of the class we focus on the Existential and Humanistic Therapy. In particular the work of Carl R. Rogers, Rollo May, Jerold Bozarth, Mick Cooper, Ernesto Spinelli and others.
Session 7:
Humanistic and Existential Aspects of Personality
The Carl Rogers Reader
Chapter 16 (p. 219-235). The Necessary and Sufficient Conditions of Personality Change
Chapter 27 A Therapist’s View of the Good Life: The Fully Functioning Person
Joseph, S. Worsley, R. A Positive Psychology of Mental Health: The person centred perspective. (p.348-
358). In: Joseph, Worsley (eds.)
Video demonstration, empathy labs
Session 8:
Mick Cooper: Existential Philosophy. In: Existential Therapies. (p.6-34) Daseinsanalysis. In: Cooper op. cit. (p.35-50)
Maurice Friedman: Dialogue and the Human Image. Beyond Humanistic Psychology. Psychology as a
Human Science. (p.9-34).
James Bugenthal. The Art of the Psychotherapist. Therapist Presence and the Alliance. In: Bugenthal, (p.49-66)
Session 9:
Poverty, Immigration, and Psychology:
Mearns, Dave: Psychotherapy - The politics of liberation or collaboration? A career critically reviewed. In: Proctor, Gillian; Cooper, Mick; Sanders Pete; Malcolm Beryl (eds.). Politicizing the person-centred
approach. An agenda for social change. PCCS Books Ross-on-Wye, 2006 (p.127-142)
Stipsits, Reinhold: Transformation in Transilvania. In: Proctor, Gillian; Cooper, Mick; Sanders Pete; Malcolm Beryl (eds.). Politicizing the person-centred approach. An agenda for social change. PCCS Books Ross-on-Wye, 2006 (p.244-253).
Imagine: Expression in the Service of Humanity. Special Edition: Journal of Humanistic Psychology. Volume 47 / 3, July 2007
Visit to the Museum of Pathology
Session 10: Schneider, Kirk, J.
Visions of Recovery: Social, Vocational, and Educational (p.57-86) In: Rediscovery of Awe. Splendor, mystery, and the fluid center of life. Paragon House, St. Paul, Minnesota, 2004
A return to Basics: Awe Based Education (p.87-110) In: Rediscovery of Awe. Splendor, mystery, and the fluid center of life. Paragon House, St. Paul, Minnesota, 2004
Session 11:
Alienation and the New Media
Alienation, the Self and Television: Psychological Life in Mass Culture. In: Classics in Humanistic Psychology.
Sanders, Pete; The Spectacular Self: Alienation as the lifestyle choice of a free world, endorsed by psychotherapists (p. 95-114). In: politicizing the person-centred approach. an agenda for social change. Proctor, Cooper, Sanders, Malcolm (eds.).
A Life divided. In: Spinelli p.137-160
Session 12:
Jean Houston: Myths of the Future. In: Classics in Humanistic Psychology. (p.43-58) Transpersonal Psychology: Self as Spirit, Self as Miracle, Self as Other Vile Bodies. In: Spinelli, E. p. 29-52
Final Exam
Cooper, Mick
Existential Therapies. Sage Publ. London, Thousand Oaks, New Delhi, 2006 (p.6-35), (p.35-50), (P.51-62), (P.63-90)
Freud, Sigmund
On creativity and the unconscious. Papers on the Psychology of Art, Literature, Love Religion. Contributions to the Psychology of Love. Harper & Row (1958) [1910], [1918], (p.162-205) Civilization and its Discontents. Penguin Books, London 2002 [1930],(p.45-70)
Totem and Taboo. Routledge, London, New York, 2006 [1913] The Horror of Incest (p.1-20)
Taboo and Emotional Ambivalence (p.21-86)
Kirschenbaum, Henderson(eds.)
The Carl Rogers Reader
Chapter 16 (p. 219-235). The Necessary and Sufficient Conditions of Personality Change
Chapter 27 A Therapist´s View of the Good Life: The Fully Functioning Person
Kirschenbaum, Howard
The Life and Work of Carl R. Rogers. PCCS Books. Ross-on Wye, 2003
Rank, Otto
The trauma of birth and its importance for psychoanalytic therapy (p.78-84).
Psychoanalysis as a cultural factor (p.85-95) In: A Psychology of Difference. The American Lectures. Selected, edited and introduced by Robert Kramer. With a foreword by Rollo May. Princeton, University
Press New Jersey. 1996
Spinelli, Ernest
Tales of Un-Knowing. Eight Stories of Existential Therapy. New York University Press. 1997
Mearns, Dave
Psychotherapy: The politics of liberation or collaboration? A career critically reviewed (p.127-142). In: politicizing the person-centred approach. an agenda for social change. Proctor, Cooper, Sanders, Malcolm (eds.). PCCS Books Ross-on-Wye, 2006
Sanders, Pete
The Spectacular Self: Alienation as the lifestyle choice of a free world, endorsed by psychotherapists (p.
95- 114). In: politicizing the person-centred approach. an agenda for social change. Proctor, Cooper, Sanders, Malcolm (eds.). PCCS Books Ross-on-Wye, 2006
Schneider, Kirk, J.
Visions of Recovery: Social, Vocational, and Educational (p.57-86) In: Rediscovery of Awe. Splendor, mystery, and the fluid center of life. Paragon House, St. Paul, Minnesota, 2004
A return to Basics: Awe Based Education (p.87-110) In: Rediscovery of Awe. Splendor, mystery, and the fluid center of life. Paragon House, St. Paul, Minnesota, 2004
Shlien, John, M.
A countertheory of transference. In: To lead an honorable Life. Invitations to think about Client-Centered Therapy and the Person-Centered Approach. edited by Pete Sanders. PCCS Books Ross-on Wye, 2003. (p.93-119)
Stipsits, Reinhold
Transformation in Transilvania (p.244-253). In: Proctor, Gillian; Cooper, Mick; Sanders Pete; Malcolm Beryl (eds.). Politicizing the person-centred approach. An agenda for social change. PCCS Books Ross- on-Wye, 2006
Stephen Joseph, Richard Worsley (eds.);
Person-Centred Psychopathology. A positive psychology of mental health. PCCS Books, Ross on Wye.
2005
Reinhold Stipsits earned a Ph.D. in Education from the University of Vienna. He is currently Professor of Social Pedagogic and Humanistic Pedagogy at Vienna, where since 1998 he has taught seminars and lectures on Education and Exclusion, Generations and Normality. He pursued studies and teaching experience in social issues and transformation at the Babes Bolyai University in Cluj-Napoca, (Romania)
2004-2006. He studied and worked with Carl R. Rogers and is a licensed psychotherapist (person- centered psychotherapy) since 1990. Current research areas focus on youth, poverty and intercultural issues of transformation. Among his more recent publications: Jugend im Fokus. Pädagogische Beiträge zur Vergewisserung einer Generation. Löcker, Verlag Wien, (Bogner/Stipsits, eds.) (2008); Transformation in Transylvania. In: politicizing the person centred approach. an agenda for social change. (Proctor, Cooper, Sanders, Malcom (eds) PCCS Books Ross-on Wye, 2006. p.244-253. Hoffnungslose Jugend? Zur Frage nach der Bedeutung von Jugend und ihren Aufstiegshoffnungen bei Elfriede Jelinek und Paulus Hochgatterer. In: Koller/Rieger-Ladich, (eds), (2009), Figurationen von Adoleszenz. Transcript Verlag, Bielefeld. p.65-77. Mit anderen Augen. An anderen Orten. Mit anderen Worten. Reportagen aus Temeswar und Wien (Editor: R. Stipsits) Wien (2009).