LS 748 - The Psychoanalysis of Culture

(3.00 cr.)

The wager posed by this course is that Freud, even almost 70 years after his death, is still a uniquely potent resource for understanding the current historical and cultural situation. Participants examine late capitalist society with an eye to the continuing relevance of key Freudian concepts, with the general aim of defining and exploring the shift from a traditional ethic of sacrifice toward a postmodern ethic of satisfaction. Readings from Freud are liberally augmented by others in the psychoanalytic tradition (Lacan, Lefort, Zizek, McGowan) and a number outside it (Marx, Berger, Arendt, and others).