PSP 789 Clinical Methods: Psychoanalysis Lecture

Rudnytsky, Peter
TUFTS House
Conference Room
TH 09:00-12:00

Psychoanalysis and Creativity

According to D. W. Winnicott, “Where psychoanalysis has attempted to tackle the subject of creativity it has to a large extent lost sight of the main theme.”  This course will view what Winnicott goes on to call “the creative impulse” in life and art through the lens of the British Independent tradition of object relations theory, which has reshaped contemporary psychoanalysis, and by reading the works of writers who have courageously documented their own struggles with mental illness.  Readings will be drawn from Freud, Ibsen, Ian Suttie, Michael Balint, Winnicott, Marion Milner, Christopher Bollas, Nina Coltart, Michael Parsons, William Styron, Kay Redfield Jamison, Madelon Sprengnether, and Elyn Saks.  Course requirements include an in-class presentation and a substantial paper.