Friday, February 27, 2015

#3 (due Thurs. March. 5th): essay prep

FOR THURSDAY

1) Bring to class AND post on blog (so that I have an idea about who’s focusing on what)

  1. at least two scenes and/or characters you want to focus on (you will need 3 for the final essay), and how you think they are connected to each other, through their symbolic components.  Remember that symbols, in dreams, can be objects, characters, specific qualities of characters, behavior of the dreamer, physical representations of the dreamer, etc.  Everything in a dream is substitution, so there isn’t much that doesn’t qualify as symbolic.

Tuesday, February 10, 2015

#2 (due Fri. Feb. 13th): Alice ch. 1-4 and psych. theory

Blog Post #2 (due FRIDAY): two posts

1) post a discussion question that addresses one of the psychoanalytic readings
AND Alice (anything from ch. 1-4).  That means ONE question that attempts to
apply psychoanalytic theory (Freud, Bettelheim, one of the Dreams authors) to the story.

2) respond to someone else’s discussion question (agree, disagree, offer a different piece of evidence, and explain yourself)


**IF YOU POST INCORRECTLY, I WILL NOT COUNT YOUR WORK.  DO NOT START A NEW POST; REPLY TO THIS ONE.

Monday, February 9, 2015

Displacement- An absence of a particular character or object of conflict in one's dream.
Reversal- A shift of focus from one person or object of interest to another in one's dream.
Regression- A shift or distortion in the perspective of a dream that can result in symbols such as pain.

How does the Oedipus Complex factor into dreams that stem from conscious world sources?

"His instinctual impulses were freed from distortion and his anxiety was dissociated from the idea of horses and traced back to its real object."

How do dreams reveal the issues that one has in the outside world?

"In the same early period in which it becomes acquainted with dangerous internal stimuli it also experiences unpleasure which has its source in the outside world."

Sunday, February 8, 2015

"Denali in Fantasy" Post#1 Nicole Carrillo

1) Three important psychoanalytic terms, from this chapter, with definitions.
Repudiate: to refuse to accept.

Objective Anxiety: results from a real threat in the physical world to one's well-being, as when a ferocious-looking dog appears from around the corner. 

Agoraphobia: fear of extreme or irrational crowded spaces, or enclosed public places.

2) Two major questions about psychoanalysis the chapter raises (either something that confuses you or something that you think is crucial in understanding the concepts addressed).  

In the reading Freud gives various examples of young children who fantasize with animals protecting them. However, in reality the animals represent the children's father who do not protect the children. Therefore, a question this chapter raises is if the child's denial reasonable and healthy for the development of the ego?

Something I was confused about was how the objective anxiety that Hans had connected between his father and the horses?

3) At least two quotations in the reading that address those questions (either answers them or raises them in the first place).

"In these tales for children the anxiety relating to the father has been displaced in the same way as in the animal fantasies"(79). This quote made me think that it is reasonable for the kids to do this for example, if a father is abusive the child having this fantasy relates the father as an animal to better make sense of the father's savage actions, but helps the animal use its strength for protection. This gives the ego relief. 

However, this quote shows how the fantasies can be bad for the ego especially in adulthood. "This meachnism belongs to a normal phase in the development of the infantile ego, but, if it recurs in later life, it indicates an advanced stage of mental disease"(80). 

Friday, February 6, 2015

#1 (due Mon. Feb. 9th): Ana Freud, "Denial in Fantasy"


Read Ana Freud’s Chapter 6, “Denial in Fantasy”, in the big packet, highlighting and annotating for important points.  Make sure that you also note parts that are confusing and write down your questions.

Blog Post #1:

1) Three important psychoanalytic terms, from this chapter, with definitions
2) Two major questions about psychoanalysis the chapter raises (either something that confuses you or something that you think is crucial in understanding the concepts addressed).  
3) At least two quotations in the reading that address those questions (either answers them or raises them in the first place)