CTSJ 332 Psychic Life of Violence

Sigmund Freud's intervention in personal sexual life often overshadows how psychoanalysis uniquely theorized violence in the context of two world wars. This course will consider how contemporary social justice issues might be informed by psychoanalytic concepts, including: aggressivity, group identification, neighbor relations, and altruism. Readings include: Freud's Civilization and Its Discontents, Beyond the Pleasure Principle, and key essays; Franz Fanon's anti-racist masterpiece Black Skin White Masks; Melanie Klein's studies of negative affect; queer theory's relation to the death drive; and essays by contemporary critical theorists grappling with the ongoing problems of war, racism, class conflict, and sexual violence.