Unwrapping the Psychoanalytic Education;On Orienting Candidates with Freud

Abstract

This paper argues that, despite being highly educated, psychoanalytic candidates need a particular orientation to become students of the strange and offensive unconscious, to help them learn to work together in the pursuit of the repressed. In this paper, the author describes an 8-week introductory course she has cotaught for the past 5 years at the Boston Psychoanalytic Society and Institute. As a kind of “Freud aperitivo course,” it gives candidates something to nibble on to stimulate the appetite for depth and to stomach difficulties that arise. The rationale for such a course is based on Freud’s ability and process in discovering psychoanalysis and the unconscious. Candidates can witness Freud’s persistence in his highly stirring discoveries, finding clues within himself to guide him in discovering the unconscious and the universal. As candidates embark on their own stirring, anxiety-provoking processes of analytic discovery, they are invited to identify with Freud’s pleasure in uncovering, to enable them to become a group capable of psychoanalytic learning. Next, the author walks the reader through what this course has to offer.

Keywords

conflict candidates psychoanalytic education dreams Freudian theory institutes unconscious

Get full access to this article

View all access options for this article.

References

Freud

(1953a). The interpretation of dreams. In Strachey

(Ed. & Trans.), The standard edition of the complete psychological works of Sigmund Freud, Vol. 4 (1900): The interpretation of dreams (I) (pp. 255–266). Hogarth. (Original work published 1900)

Freud

(1953b). On dreams. In Strachey

(Ed. & Trans.), The standard edition of the complete psychological works of Sigmund Freud, Vol. 5 (1900–1901): The interpretation of dreams (II) and on dreams (pp. 629–686). Hogarth. (Original work published 1901)

Freud

(1953c). Three essays on the theory of sexuality. In Strachey

(Ed. & Trans.), The standard edition of the complete psychological works of Sigmund Freud, Vol. 7 (1901–1905): A case of hysteria, three essays on sexuality and other works (pp. 123–246). Hogarth. (Original work published 1905)

Freud

(1955a). Totem and taboo. In Strachey

(Ed. & Trans.), The standard edition of the complete psychological works of Sigmund Freud, Vol. 13 (1913–1914): Totem and taboo and other works (pp. 1–162). Hogarth. (Original work published 1913)

Freud

(1955b). Miss Lucy

In Strachey

(Ed. & Trans.), –The standard edition of the complete psychological works of Sigmund Freud, Vol. 2 (1893-1895): Studies on hysteria (pp. 106–124). Hogarth. (Original work pubilshed 1893)

Freud

(1957). Five lectures on psycho-analysis. In Strachey

(Ed. & Trans.), The standard edition of the complete psychological works of Sigmund Freud, Vol. 11 (1906–1909): Five lectures on psycho-analysis, Leonardo and other works (pp. 9–55). Hogarth. (Original work published 1910)

Freud

(1959a). Hysterical phantasies and their relation to bisexuality. In Strachey

(Ed. & Trans.), The standard edition of the complete psychological works of Sigmund Freud, Vol. 9 (1906–1909): Jensen’s “Gradiva,” and other works (pp. 155–166). Hogarth. (Original work published 1908)

Freud

(1959b). On the sexual theories of children. In Strachey

(Ed. & Trans.), The standard edition of the complete psychological works of Sigmund Freud, Vol. 9 (1906–1909): Jensen’s “Gradiva,” and other works (pp. 205–226). Hogarth. (Original work published 1908)

Freud

(1959c). The sexual enlightenment of children (an open letter to Dr. M. Furst). In Strachey

(Ed. & Trans.), The standard edition of the complete psychological works of Sigmund Freud, Vol. 9 (1906–1909): Jensen’s “Gradiva,” and other works (pp. 129–140). Hogarth. (Original work published 1907)

10.

Freud

(1961). Introductory lectures on psycho-analysis. In Strachey

(Ed. & Trans.), The standard edition of the complete psychological works of Sigmund Freud, Vol. 15 (1915–1916): Introductory lectures on psycho-analysis (Parts I and II) (pp. 169–198). Hogarth. (Original work published 1916)

11.

Griffith

F. L.

(1898). The Petrie Papyri: Hieratic papyri from Kahun and Gurob (principally of the Middle Kingdom). University of Heidelberg.

12.

Masson

J. M.

(Ed. & Trans.). (1985). The complete letters of Sigmund Freud to Wilhelm Fliess, 1887–1904. Belknap.

13.

Pole

(2013). Disgust discussed: Introduction to the special edition. Psychological Bulletin, 139(2), 269–270.

14.

Scholz-Böttcher

Nissenbaum

Rullkötter

(2013). 18th century medication “Mumia vera aegyptica”—Fake or authentic? Organic Geochemistry, 65, 1–18.

15.

Trindade Lopes

Gurgel Pereira

R. G

. (2021). The gynecological papyrus Kahun. IntechOpen. doi:10.5772/intechopen.9531

16.

Wolfe

S. J.

(2009). Mummies in nineteenth century America: Ancient Egyptians as artifacts. McFarland.