Fundamentals of psychoanalysis

Educational experience has shown us that what is most valuable today is not to provide mere notions, but to create the conditions that enable the student to develop an autonomous critical approach to studies. This is why the targeted reading of a selection of Freudian writings and the discussion of the same, enriched with suggestions for further study, will serve to build a cognitive hierarchy that opens the way to a profound and real understanding of the psychoanalytic discipline on a theoretical, clinical and methodological level.

Franco Baldini, Silvana Dalto

The objective of the course is to acquire the fundamentals of psychoanalytic theory and practice, being aware of the historical cultural context and the pathway of the discipline’s constitution.
The module will have a thematic organisation. It will start from the analysis of the psychic phenomena of everyday life, which allows us to approach the unconscious as a central element of the psychic system; it will continue by delving into the development of the theory of mind, in which it takes the form of a play of forces leading to the concept of drive; it will reach its acme by addressing the more methodological and clinical issues, and will then devote the last semester to the development of an original research that the student will have to present at the end of the module and that may be published in the Metapsychologica – Freudian psychoanalysis journal.

– The SPF approach
– History of psychoanalysis
– Biography of Sigmund Freud
– The missed acts
– The Dream
– Libido and drive theory
– Human sexuality
– Resistance and removal
– Etiology of neuroses
– The pathway to symptom formation
– The problem of anguish
– Principles of psychic occurrence pt. 1
– Transference theory
– The analytic treatment
– The ESM
– The problem of narcissism
– Sadism and masochism
– Principles of Psychic Happening pt. 2
– Female sexuality

At the end of the course, the student will have knowledge of the rationale behind the specific SPF approach, the rudiments for understanding and interpreting missing acts and the dream phenomenon; he/she will be able to understand the mechanisms behind symptom formation and the foundations of drive theory; he/she will know the main epistemological and methodological problems of analytical theory and practice. Finally, he/she will have the tools to develop autonomous research that meets scientific standards.

Lectures will be held fortnightly in online mode. Students will be required to constantly discuss with the lecturers, presenting arguments that are useful for the development of the lectures.

Annually, the production of a written report describing extensively at least one of the concepts covered during the course will be required.

• Freud, S. (1923), Due voci di enciclopedia “Libido”
• Freud, S. (1901), Il sogno
• Freud, S. (1900), L’interpretazione dei sogni
• Freud, S. (1925), Autobiografia
• Freud, S. (1915-1917), Introduzione alla psicoanalisi
• Freud, S. (1909), Cinque conferenze sulla psicoanalisi
• Freud, S. (1932), Introduzione alla psicoanalisi (nuova serie di lezioni)
• Gay, P. (1988), Freud una vita per i nostri tempi
• Laplanche, J. & Pontalis, J.-B. (), Enciclopedia della psicoanalisi
• Bercherie, P. (), La metapsicologia di Freud
• Freud, S. (1905), Tre saggi sulla teoria sessuale
• Freud, S. (1915-1917), Metapsicologia
• Freud, S. (1911), Precisazioni sui due principi dell’accadere psichico
• Freud, S. (1924), Il problema economico del masochismo
• Freud, S. (1920), Al di là del principio di piacere
• Freud, S. (1923), L’Io e l’Es
• Freud, S. (1931), Sessualità femminile 
• Freud, S. (1938), Compendio di psicoanalisi
• Baldini, F. (2020), Nuove considerazioni 
• Freud, S. (1911-1912), Tecnica della psicoanalisi
• Freud, S. (1913-1915), Nuovi consigli sulla tecnica della psicoanalisi
• Freud, S. (1918), Contributi alla psicologia della vita amorosa
• Jones, E. Vita e opere di Freud (3 voll.)