Programme

The course encourages direct and active participation from students, emphasizing participatory learning and critical thinking. The course is structured around two main themes:
1) Intersubjectivity and psychic functioning, focusing on how the mind is structured, its mechanisms, and the interconnections between individuals and society from a contemporary psychoanalytic perspective.
2) The centrality of emotional-affective and unconscious dynamics.
Contemporary psychoanalytic literature will be studied and discussed in class to stimulate critical and reflective thinking (relective practice). Each topic will be explored in depth, supplemented with additional theoretical knowledge and empirical case studies.
Specifically, the course will focus on the intersections between the individual and society (i.e., the psychic and social worlds), examining the cultural, social, and political implications of trauma, starting from the pioneering contributions of Ferenczi and Fromm, and then addressing - through the contributions of some contemporary psychoanalysts - topics such as freedom, introjective and projective mechanisms underlying the construction of identity (both individual and social). The course will also delve into the role and function of institutions in managing anxiety, as well as the intricate power dynamics inherent in psychic subjugation and submission, examining their connection with the concept of disavowal.
This year, in particular, the contributions of Lynne Layton to social psychoanalysis and her conceptualization of "normative unconscious processes," and those of Raluca Sorenau on working through socially rooted collective trauma, will be analyzed.

Core Documentation

A list of references will be uploaded on the course's Teams channel, along with supplementary materials. Papers will be critically discussed and analyzed in class.

For non-attending students, the exam also include the following volumes:
Sorenau, R. (2018). Working-through collective wounds: Trauma, denial, recognition in the Brazilian uprising. Palgrave Macmillan.
Layton, L. (2020). Toward a social psychoanalysis: Culture, character, and normative unconscious processes. Routledge Press.

Reference Bibliography

Sorenau, R. (2018). Working-through collective wounds: Trauma, denial, recognition in the Brazilian uprising. Palgrave Macmillan. Layton, L. (2020). Toward a social psychoanalysis: Culture, character, and normative unconscious processes. Routledge Press.

Attendance

Although attendance is not mandatory (as per the educational regulations), it is strongly recommended given the experiential nature of the course and its subject matter, which involves am in-depth understading of the complex interplay between culture, society, and the individual - with particular attention to its unconscious life. Thinking psychoanalytically means being able to simultaneously read the different levels at play and the interlocking among them, often difficult to detect. This is why the classroom experience becomes an opportunity to gain concrete experience with a new approach of thinking, gradually becoming familiar with an entirely new way of give meaning to reality, which will structurally transform your way of seeing and interpreting things.

Type of evaluation

Given its experiential and reflective approach, the course involves a different evaluative method for attending and non-attending students, For attending students: Attendance in classes represents a moment of learning and evaluation, where it is possible to assess in real-time the level of acquired competencies and the student's critical ability to interpret social phenomena through the lens of psychoanalysis. Additionally, at the end of the course, attending students will be required to write a brief essay on a topic of their choice (examining contemporary social phenomena such as environmental disasters, social inequalities, totalitarian political regimes, wars, but also literature, films, or poetry), which will be subject to evaluation. For non-attending students: Students who have not attended classes may take the exam orally. The evaluation of their level of knowledge and competence will focus on an oral interrogation on the indicated books (see Referencees section) and on the study of the didactic material provided and discussed in class.