Seminar Leaders: S. Leibow, MD and L. Barton, MA
Course Description
This course will examine more recent ideas about the role of childhood sexuality in adolescents and adults from a variety of theoretical points of view. Some of the remaining debates about where to situate sexuality in relation to pre Oedipal and Oedipal development will also be considered. This course also examines how childhood sexual trauma appears in clinical work with adolescent and adult patients.
Course Objectives
- Review the current ideas with clinical examples of the way unconscious childhood sexual theories and fantasies develop over time, with particular emphasis on their role in adolescent development and adult character formation. (1.1, 1.3c)
- Examine the role of particular sexual factors and fantasies that arise from universal childhood anxieties and experiences in the development of symptom formation, including the development of anxiety and difficulties in self esteem and object relations. (1.2a, .2b, 1.3c)
- Understand how awareness of and analysis of these unconscious fantasies and their childhood derivation can contribute to symptom relief and character change. (1.4)
- Integrate knowledge of human development across the lifespan (1.1.1); Integrate knowledge of the impact of childhood trauma on psychoalogical functioning in adult patients (1.2.1)
Seminar 1: Classics of Drive Theory; Orality and Anality
Required Readings
Abraham, K. (1925). The Influence of oral Erotism on Character-Formation. International Journal of Psychoanalysis, 6:247-258.
Abraham, K. (1923). Contributions to the Theory of the Anal Character. International Journal of Psychoanalysis, 4:400418.
Seminar 2: The Early Oedipal Situation
Required Readings
Shengold, L. (1971) More about Rats and Rat People. International Journal of Psychoanalysis, 52: 277-288, connects to the Rat Man case.
Supplementary
Klein, M. (1945). The Oedipus complex in the light of early anxieties, International Journal of Psychoanalysis., 26, 26-33.
Seminar 3: Derivatives of Psychosexual Fantasy, the Body as Phallus and Primal Scene
Required Readings
Arlow, J.A. (1980). The Revenge Motive in the Primal Scene. J. Amer. Psychoanal. Assn., 28:519-541.
Sandler, J. (1959). The Body as Phallus: A Patient’s Fear of Erection. International Journal of Psychoanalysis, 40:191-198.
Seminar 4: Derivatives of Psychosexual Fantasy, More Current Views: Orality and Anality
Required Readings
White, R.S., (2015). Hansel and Gretel: A Tale of Terror. Psychoanal Q., 84(4): 893-920.
Supplementary
Brown, L.J. (2002) The Early Oedipal Situation: Developmental, Theoretical, and Clinical implications. Psychoanal Q., 71(2): 273-300.