The Institute for Comparative Literature and Society
Graduate Workshop
Th 2:10-4PM
Fall 2020 A Term
This mini-course will review neuroimaging and cognitive neuroscience from the perspective of contemporary psychoanalysis. The course will be broken into four classes, each devoted to a major theme in cognitive neuroscience linked to concepts and readings in psychoanalytic theory and clinical work. The course begins with readings and discussion of epistemological differences and similarities between psychoanalysis and neuroimaging, as well as critiques of efforts to link the two. The second class will focus on drives and affects, exploring how they are described in the psychoanalytic and neuroscience literatures, and potential synergy between these perspectives. The third class will examine theories of sensory perception and representation (from low to high level) and consider a possibility of a unified theory of representation relevant to both fields. Finally, the fourth class will deal with a growing literature in cognitive neuroscience on social cognition and the implications these ideas may have for understanding transference and psychotherapeutic change.
Link to Vergil
Note: only courses offered during the two previous semesters have active Vergil links
