Jonathan Lee, John Riker, and I, tenured professors at Colorado College in Colorado Springs, initiated a minor in psychoanalysis here several years ago. Riker, a professor of philosophy and a former Kohut Professor at the University of Chicago, teaches “Philosophy and Psychoanalysis,” and “Philosophy and Psychology of the Self.” Lee, also a professor of philosophy, teaches courses on Lacan and French psychoanalysis. I, a double Ph.D. in classics (specialties in ancient Greek drama, myth, religion, and language) and in clinical psychology, teach “Psychoanalysis and Psychotherapy: Discovering the Unconscious,” and “Myth and Meaning.”
In July 2007, thanks to the kindness and foresight of David Terman, director of the Chicago Institute for Psychoanalysis, Riker and I brought nine Colorado College students to the Institute to teach them a version of “Discovering the Unconscious: Psychoanalysis and Psychotherapy,” the course that spawned the above minor. In Chicago we taught the course through reading works of a number of Chicago psychoanalysts, who were generous enough to talk to the class about their work. The analysts participating were Arnold Goldberg, Salee Jenkins, Christine Kieffer, Kenneth Newman, Allen Siegel, Brenda Solomon, Frank Summers, David Terman, Arnold Tobin, Marian Tolpin, and Ernest Wolf. It was an exceptional experience for us all. Our nine students were unanimous in proclaiming this to be the best course they had ever taken, and four were certain that they wished to pursue psychoanalysis as a career. It was clear that their response was motivated by actually being at the Institute and finding out firsthand possible paths to the profession, as well as witnessing the joys, difficulties, and the sense of fulfillment it gave to the analysts, who presented eagerly and empathically.
When I first initiated “Discovering the Unconscious” at Colorado College, it was cross-listed with “Humanities,” “Comparative Literature,” and “Philosophy.” It found no home in our psychology department, because it was not considered sufficiently scientific or empirically based to be worthy of psychological study. A few years ago, after the course proved to be a resounding success (it had one of the longest waiting lists of any course at the college), the psychology department agreed to give it a PY number but refused to count it toward a psychology major. While some members of the department frown on psychoanalysis as being at best an art but scarcely a science, I try to focus on the connections and to address the differences in a friendly way.
Perhaps it will serve as a model in the future for institutes that wish to open their doors to undergraduates for the purpose of spreading interest and excitement in what is (despite what some say) an alive and vibrant field for study, personal reflection, and possible future careers.
It was the continued popularity of the course that initiated the possibility of creating the psychoanalysis minor. Lee and Riker added the required number of basic courses to consolidate the minor. The minor focuses on the theories themselves and then adds relevant courses from the various disciplines so that students may, if they wish, direct their psychoanalytic knowledge to their major fields.
Unlike the courses referenced in a November 2007 New York Times article, “Discovering the Unconscious” does not use Freud as a springboard for the analysis of other disciplines. Rather it uses selected literature and film to open up various theories of psychoanalysis, which are understood in their historical context. As a practicing psychotherapist, I teach theory together with case studies. We look at and try to understand psychotherapy in an experiential context. For example, our Freudian readings include “On Beginning the Treatment,” and “Advice to Physicians.” I use Christopher Bollas's little book, Free Association, to allow the students to play at being therapist and patient in the classroom in order to gain insight into the loosening of the bind of consciousness and to practice how to listen so that this happens. This exercise is valuable not only for would-be therapists but also for students seriously interested in writing poetry or in stream of consciousness writing, as in the works of Virginia Woolf or James Joyce.
At the end of the course, I allow the students to use their own personal experience as case material to work through some of the theory we have discussed. The students who do this gain much insight. I also encourage students to interpret works of literature or film in their final papers through the lens of various psychoanalytic theories, be they Freudian, object relational, Winnicottian, or self psychological.
We plan to teach the course in its “Chicago” form again this year, undoubtedly with more students. The Chicago Institute is to be congratulated for having the adventurous spirit to go along with us in this unique enterprise. Perhaps it will serve as a model in the future for institutes that wish to open their doors to undergraduates for the purpose of spreading interest and excitement in what is (despite what some say) an alive and vibrant field for study, personal reflection, and possible future careers.
Marcia D.-S. Dobson, Ph.D., a psychoanalytically informed practicing psychotherapist, holds Ph.D.s in classical philology and clinical psychology. She is director of the Colorado Springs Psychoanalytic Salon and past president of the Colorado Springs Jung Society. Her publications focus on ancient Greek tragedy and psychoanalysis.