Introduction                                                                                                                                           (1 class)

PART I:  SEXUALITY.  THE EROTIC.  POWER.

Sigmund Freud
    “Civilized’ Sexual Morality and Modern Nervousness” (1908)                                                            (1 class)
    Rat Man:  "Notes Upon a Case of Obsessional Neurosis" (1909)                                                       (1 class)
    Dora:  "Fragment of an Analysis of a Case of Hysteria” (1905)                                                           (1 class)
    Three Essays on the Theory of Sexuality (1905)                                                                             (1 class)

Audre Lorde
    “Uses of the Erotic:  The Erotic as Power” (1978)
    “The Uses of Anger” (1981)
     “Eye to Eye” (1983)
     (from Sister Outsider:  Essays and Speeches by Audre Lorde, 1984)                                              (1 class)

Film
    “Woman in the Window” (Fritz Lang, 1944; Edward G. Robinson, Joan Bennett)

PART II:  OBJECT RELATIONS.  SELF & OTHER.  IDENTIFICATION.

Freud
    Mourning and Melancholia (1917)
    The Ego and the Id, sections II-IV) (1923)                                                                                        (1 class)

Sándor Ferenczi
    “Sándor Ferenczi:  Discovery and Rediscovery,” Lewis Aron and
    Adrienne Harris (from The Legacy of Sándor Ferenczi, 1993                                                            (1 class)

Melanie Klein
    “Mourning and its Relation to Manic-Depressive States” (1940)
    “Notes on Some Schizoid Mechanisms” (1946)                                                                                   (1 class)

Margaret Mahler
    “On Human Symbiosis and the Vicissitudes of Individuation” (1967)
    “On the First Three Subphases of the Separation-Individuation Process” (1972)                                  (1 class)

Marie Cardinal
    The Words to Say It (1983)                                                                                                               (2 classes)

Jane Flax
    “Political Philosophy and the Patriarchal Unconscious” (1983)                                                             (1 class)

Lee Crespi
    “Mourning and Positive Lesbian Identity” (1995)                                                                                  (1 class)

Film
    “Being John Malkovich” (Spike Jonze, 1999; John Cusack, Catherine Keener, Cameron Diaz, John Malkovich)

PART III:  FEMININITY

Freud
    “Dissolution of the Oedipus Complex” (1924)
    “Some Psychical Consequences of the Anatomical Distinction Between the Sexes” (1925)
    “Female Sexuality” (1931)
    “Femininity” (1932)                                                                                                                                     (1 class)

Karen Horney
    “On the Genesis of the Castration Complex in Women” (1922)
    “The Flight from Womanhood” (1926)                                                                                                     (1 class)

Luce Irigaray
    “This Sex Which is Not One” (1977)                                                                                                       (1 class)

PART IV:  PSYCHE AND CULTURE

Karen Horney
    “Inhibited Femininity” (1926-27)

Judith Herman
    “Forgotten History” from Trauma and Recovery (1992)                                                                          (1 class)

Women’s Therapy Centre Institute
    Eating Problems:  A Feminist Psychoanalytic Treatment Model (1994)                                                    (2 classes)

Susan Bordo
    “Reading the Slender Body” (1990)                                                                                                       (1 class)

Nawal El Saadawi
    Two Women in One (1985)                                                                                                                  (2 classes)

Shulamith Hareven
    “Israel:  The First Forty Years” (from The Vocabulary of Peace, 1995)                                                  (1 class)

PART V:  POSTMODERNISM.  FEMININITY?  DIFFERENCE.

Gayle Wheeler
    “The Love of Looking” (2001)                                                                                                              (1 class)

Judith Butler
    “Subjects of Sex/Gender/Desire” (from Gender Trouble, 1990)
    “Melancholy Gender/Refused Identification,” “Keeping it Moving” (reply
    to Butler by Adam Philips), “Reply to Adam Philips” (from The Psychic
    Life of Power, 1997)                                                                                                                            (2 classes)

Teresa De Lauretis
    “Perverse Desire” (from The Practice of Love, 1994)                                                                            (1 class)

Julia Kristeva
    “Might Not Universality Be. . . Our Own Foreignness?” (from Strangers
    to Ourselves, 1991)
Shulamith Hareven
    “Portrait of a Terrorist” (from The Vocabulary of Peace, 1991)                                                             (1 class)

Film
    “Boys Don’t Cry” (Kimberly Pierce, 1999; Hilary Swank, Chloë Sevigny,
    Peter Sarsgaard)
 

COURSE TOPICS:  psychoanalytic constructions and reconstructions of femininity, how culture affects women’s psyches and bodies, the impact of women on psychoanalytic thinking, phases of psychoanalytic thought that parallel phases of feminist thought (sexuality/repression, interdependence/identification, gender flexibility/acceptance of difference)

COURSE GOALS:  increased understanding of the course topics; increased understanding of oneself, of others and of the other in oneself

COURSE TEXTS:
    PART I:
        “Civilized’ Sexual Morality and Modern Nervousness” (handout)
        “Rat Man” (in Three Case Histories) (bookstore)
        “Dora” (in Dora:  An Analysis of a Case of Hysteria) (bookstore)
        Three Essays on the Theory of Sexuality (bookstore)
        Lorde readings (in Sister Outsider:  Essays and Speeches by Audre Lorde, bookstore)
        “Woman in the Window” (will be viewed together in the evening; available in the library)
    PART II:
        “Mourning and Melancholia” (in Freud:  General Psychological Theory, bookstore)
        The Ego and the Id (handout)
        “Sándor Ferenczi:  Discovery and Rediscovery” (handout)
        The Words to Say It (bookstore)
        Klein and Mahler readings (handouts)
        “Political Philosophy and the Patriarchal Unconscious” (handout)
        “Mourning and Positive Lesbian Identity” (handout)
        “Being John Malkovich” (will be viewed together in the evening; ordered for the library)
    PART III
        “Dissolution of the Oedipus Complex” (in Freud on Women, bookstore)
        “Some Psychical Consequences of the Anatomical Distinction
        Between the Sexes” (in Freud on Women)
        “Female Sexuality” (in Freud on Women)
        “Femininity” (in Freud on Women)
        Horney readings (in Feminine Psychology, bookstore)
        “This Sex Which is Not One” (handout)
    PART IV
        Horney reading (in Feminine Psychology)
        “A Forgotten History” (handout)
        Eating Problems:  A Feminist Psychoanalytic Treatment Model (bookstore)
        “Reading the Slender Body” (handout)
        Two Women in One (for purchase at cost from instructor)
        “Israel:  The First Forty Years” (from The Vocabulary of Peace, 1995)
    PART V
        All readings in Part V are handouts
        “Boys Don’t Cry” (will be viewed together in the evening; available in the library)

FILMS:  The three films, “Woman in the Window,” “Being John Malkovich” and “Boys Don’t Cry” exemplify course themes.  Some later take-home/paper topics will refer to the films.  We will view the films together in the evening.

COURSE REQUIREMENTS:
Readings as assigned
Participation in class discussions
Class attendance
Eight take-home assignments
Two papers (around eight pages)

TAKE-HOME ASSIGNMENTS:  There will be eight take-home assignments:  Part I:  one on Freud and one on Lorde; Part II:  one on Freud and one on later writings; Part III:  one assignment; Part IV: two assignments; Part V:  one assignment.  The take-home assignments will help students focus their reading and prepare them to write the essays.

PAPERS:  The papers will be essays (not research papers) on topics pertaining to the course texts.  They will be around eight pages long.

You need use no books other than the course texts in order to write the essays.  In an essay, you state a thesis, explain it and argue for it.  The basic structure of an essay is:  an introduction in which you state your thesis, the body of the essay in which you explain and argue for your thesis, the conclusion in which you summarize or highlight what you have done in the essay.

Essays will be evaluated on the following basis:

1.  Do you have the parts mentioned above (introduction, body, conclusion)?
2.  Do you fulfill the functions mentioned above (state thesis, explain it, argue for it, summarize or highlight)?
3.  Is the thesis you are writing about an interesting and important one?
4.  Does your explanation of the thesis show that it is an interesting and important one?  Does your explanation make the basic
     concepts and terms in your essay clear to the reader?
5.  Are your arguments clear and convincing to the reader?
6.  Do you use specific examples from the text you are writing about to make your arguments stronger?  Do you use direct
     quotations from the text you are writing about to make your arguments stronger?
7.  Does your conclusion add something to the essay as a whole?

EVALUATION:
Grades will be based on the papers and take-home assignments, weighted equally (1/2 each).

Late papers or take-homes will lose a letter grade for each class session they are late.  There are no make-up examinations except in the case of serious illness or emergency.  There will be no extra credit work.  The student will be held responsible for knowing what goes on in class.  Absences will not excuse you from knowing due dates of take-homes and papers.

The grading scale is:  94-100, A; 90-93 A-; 87-89 B+; 84-86 B; 80-83 B-; 77-79 C+; 74-76 C; 70-73 C-; 67-69 D+; 64-66 D; 60-63 D-; below 60, F.

It is the instructor's policy that cheating, plagiarism or submission of written work for this course which was submitted in another course merits a course grade of 'F'.

GRADUATE STUDENTS:  Graduate students will have only three graded assignments, three papers around twelve pages each.  The papers will involve more extensive reading than undergraduate papers do.  The first paper will be on a topic pertaining to Part I of the course and will be due three weeks after we complete the reading for Part I.  The second paper will be on a topic pertaining to Part II of the course and will be due three weeks after we complete the reading for Part II.  The third paper will be on a topic pertaining to Part III, IV or V and will be due a week after the last day of class.  Evaluation will be based on the three papers, weighted equally.  Graduate students will discuss their papers with the instructor prior to writing them and will take the initiative to schedule a meeting with the instructor to do so.  All other requirements and procedures for graduate students are the same as those for undergraduate students.

ATTENDANCE:  Much of the important work in this course goes on in class.  Students are expected to be in attendance except in cases of illness or emergency, to be in attendance for the whole class session and not to make appointments that conflict with class sessions.

CLASS FORMAT:  This class will be a combination of lecture and discussion.  The discussion generally will be guided discussion rather than general discussion or general debate.

Lectures and discussions will refer to course texts.  Students will need to bring the relevant course texts to class if they are to benefit from lectures and discussions.

STUDYING:  Many students will find that they do better in this course if they study together with other students.

DISABILITY POLICY:  The Department of Philosophy is committed to equal opportunity in education for all students, including those with documented physical or learning disabilities.  According to University policy, a student with a documented disability is required to contact his or her instructors during the first week of each semester to discuss accommodations appropriate to ensure equity in grading, classroom experiences and out-of-class assignments.  Each instructor will meet with the student and Student Services Center staff members to formulate a written plan for appropriate accommodations, if they are required.

My office hours are 2:30 - 3:30pm, Tuesdays and Wednesdays, 108D Cain Hall, or by appointment.  (Cain Hall is abbreviated 'EJCH' and is sometimes called the 'Old Education Building'.)  Please come by if you wish to discuss the course topics or your progress in the course.  I am happy to meet with you at other times should they be more convenient for you.  If you do wish to see me at some time other time, call 784-6742 (my office) to make an appointment.

If you try to get in touch with me and cannot, be sure to leave an answering machine message or a note with your phone number so that I can contact you.  (Please make appointments by phone or in person, not by e-mail.)