Society and Psychoanalysis in Sigmund Freud's Vienna

Around 1900, economic and social changes fostered deepening political and cultural conflicts. Emancipatory movements and mass phenomena demanded new approaches. Vienna was culturally highly complex and politically and socially divided. Religion and social conventions ceased to provide sufficient orientation. Mass movements and political demagogues characterized the public space.

Psychoanalysis offered new ways of dealing with actual problems and found its way not only into psychiatry, into art, literature, and music but also into the emerging social sciences and political analysis. This was a radical reaction against traditional views of the world.

Psychoanalysis would combine developments that had been around since the 18th century. The scientific exploration of intimate emotions and of areas that were once taboo – like infantile sexuality or the profane foundation of religion and the functioning of propaganda – was considered scandalous, but nevertheless gained a wide notoriety and eventually revealed dimensions of human behavior and cultural life commonly denied or concealed.

In this course we want to combine a look at the history of human sciences with an exploration of developments in the fields of society, politics and culture.

The course will cover the following topics:

• The political and social situation of the late Habsburg Empire
• Jewish emancipation
• Labor movement and women’s rights movement
• The scientific background of psychoanalysis
• Foundations of creativity and artistic expression
• Understanding and  enjoyment of literature, art and music.
• Mass psychology and (political) propaganda
• Political violence and war
• Sigmund Freud and his discoveries:
• (1911) Formulation on the Two Principles of Mental Functioning
• (1907) Obsessive Actions and Religious Practices
• (1907) Creative Writers and Day-Dreaming
• (1915) Thoughts for the Times on War and Death
• (1921) Mass Psychology and Analysis of the Ego

Requirements: Attendance and participation in class discussion constitute 30%, small group discussion of reading-assignments and the presentations 30% and a written final exam 40% of the grade.