This project is interested in developing a spatial reading of Sigmund Freud’s work to understand how psychoanalysis employs a variety of different spatial categories. Proceeding by way of a close and analytical reading of Freud’s texts, I begin by surveying theories of space coming from both philosophy and geography before applying these understandings to consider Freud’s use of topographical metaphors, the formation of the subject as presented through descriptions of the fort-da game and the oceanic feeling, and Freud’s description of the limits of phantasy and reality. Freud’s writings on religion figure prominently here. I conclude by examining the deployment of individual relations through social space in Freud’s writings and the link between place and character laid out in Moses and Monotheism. The result demonstrates the importance of space in a number of aspects of Freudian psychoanalysis and frames Freud as a thinker with important contributions to make to the spatial turn in the humanities and social sciences.

This essay is a psychoanalytical reading of the Scottish author Muriel Spark’s novel The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie. The protagonist is a charismatic teacher, who is popular among her pupils, but who appears to use her power and position merely in order to manipulate her pupils. It appears that Miss Brodie’s main interest is not her pupils’ academic achievements, but she has a different agenda on her mind. This essay examines the unconscious motives behind the protagonist’s peculiar treatment of her pupils by learning more about what takes place in the human mind, when the individual starts to listen to the sound of defensive mechanisms instead of to the sound of logic.

In this essay, I argue that issues of voyeurism and scopophilia raised in Laura Mulvey’s early essay, “Visual Pleasure in Narrative Cinema,” are closely related to the social and economic shifts which occurred during the post-war period. Specifically, I argue that Mulvey’s essay articulates a particular kind of formal technique associated with what she calls “non-narrative scopophilia,” a kind of long-take shot that is utilized to great effect by Alfred Hitchcock in two of his later films, Rear Window (1955) and Psycho (1960). I argue that these shots represent a disruption to the smooth functioning of the classical Hollywood model of narrative and gender ideology in the post-war period tied closely to the changing economic realities of the period. I further argue that such a disruption is closely related to a new model of consumerism that emerges during this period.

Thesis (B.A.)--Haverford College, Dept. of Psychology, 2004. / Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis (M.A.)--York University, 2001. / Title from certificate page. Typescript. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 174-182). Also available on the Internet. MODE OF ACCESS via web browser by entering the following URL: http://wwwlib.umi.com/cr/yorku/fullcit?pMQ71624.

Much of the existing scholarship on the popular appeal of television emphasizes the role of content over any of the medium’s other elements. Work within the cultural studies tradition, for example, often centers the importance of specific television programs when discussing the small screen’s allure for discerning viewers. Other analyses that proclaim explicit concern for “the rhetoric of television” as a whole nevertheless tend to limit their focus to specific, recognizable elements within broadcast programming. As a result, there exists no strong theoretical perspective that helps account for an attraction to television as a medium, despite that fact that many people are familiar with instances of television reception that appear to have nothing to do with the specificity of broadcast content (i.e. collapsing in front of “the box” after a long day and watching whatever happens to be on—sometimes for hours at a time). The present study remedies this absence by proposing a rhetorical mode for the medium of television based on the psychoanalytic concept of “projective identification.” Originating in the object relations work of Melanie Klein, projective identification names a primary mechanism by which individuals manage unconscious anxieties that attend modern subjectivity. This study asserts that specific elements of the televisual apparatus in combination invite unconscious acts of projective identification from viewers. Because this invitation relieves viewers of primal anxieties and increases their attraction to the medium itself, it is appropriate to interpret projective identification in this context as an inherently rhetorical concern. This study progresses in three basic sections. The first two chapters review relevant literature in the fields of rhetoric, media, and psychoanalysis in order to propose “the rhetoric of projective identification” as a mode of address inherent to the medium of television through the second half of the 20th century. The middle three chapters then validate and extend this mode by considering three elements of the televisual medium in even greater depth: Intimacy, flow, and instances of audience activism. Finally, the conclusion of the study considers the continued utility of the proposed mode in a contemporary era marked by media convergence and technological implosion.

This dissertation uses psychoanalytic theory to examine the similar portrayals of monstrous femininity in two Middle English poems, Robert Henryson’s the Testament of Cresseid and the Awntyrs off Arthure. In the Testament, Cresseid’s leprosy is interpreted through Julia Kristeva’s theory of abjection, suggesting that Cresseid experiences the abject to create a new identity as a leper. Rather than view Cresseid’s dream as an assembly of very real divinities who pass judgment over her sleeping body, I interpret the dream in a strictly physiological sense, arguing that Cresseid not only creates the judgment from her own conflicted psychology, but actively shapes her own destiny. Cresseid’s disease does not annihilate her identity, but gives her a significant position in society, because her status as a leper facilitates the economy of salvation. I continue with Kristeva’s theory to understand the characterization of the grotesque corpse of Gaynour’s mother in the Awntyrs off Arthure. Her rotting body is doubly abject, both as a corpse and a mother. While abjection provides a useful opening for discussing the portraits of Gaynour and her mother, Kristeva’s theory does not consider all women in the text, and only confirms misogynist stereotypes. To supplement Kristeva, I use Slavoj Žižek’s interpretation of Jacques Lacan’s theory of desire to illuminate the text as a whole, and explain the role of the corpse in shaping the narrative. / Thesis (Master, English) -- Queen's University, 2009-08-20 03:15:54.674

In this essay, I argue that issues of voyeurism and scopophilia raised in Laura Mulvey’s early essay, “Visual Pleasure in Narrative Cinema,” are closely related to the social and economic shifts which occurred during the post-war period. Specifically, I argue that Mulvey’s essay articulates a particular kind of formal technique associated with what she calls “non-narrative scopophilia,” a kind of long-take shot that is utilized to great effect by Alfred Hitchcock in two of his later films, Rear Window (1955) and Psycho (1960). I argue that these shots represent a disruption to the smooth functioning of the classical Hollywood model of narrative and gender ideology in the post-war period tied closely to the changing economic realities of the period. I further argue that such a disruption is closely related to a new model of consumerism that emerges during this period.

This doctoral thesis deals with the topic of Pastoral Psychology. It is a comparative study of the Psychoanalyst Karen Homey and the Father of the Church, Saint Maximus the Confessor. The central part of the thesis is a comparison of Karen Homey's psychological theory of neurosis and Saint Maximus the Confessor's anthropological understanding of the nature of human fallenness. This is preceded by a comparative study of the understanding of the potentialities of healthy human nature, or human nature as God intended it, and followed by a comparison of the therapeutic methods proposed by Karen Homey on one hand and Saint Maximus on the other. The whole study is prefaced by a historical introduction that seeks to place the American Psychoanalyst and the Father of the Church in their respective historical and intellectual context. This study closes with conclusions and an epilogue that deals with the current position of Karen Homey's psychoanalysis, and the way in which Saint Maximus the Confessor's teaching on Creation, Man and World contributes to the teaching of the Church today.

This project is interested in developing a spatial reading of Sigmund Freud’s work to understand how psychoanalysis employs a variety of different spatial categories. Proceeding by way of a close and analytical reading of Freud’s texts, I begin by surveying theories of space coming from both philosophy and geography before applying these understandings to consider Freud’s use of topographical metaphors, the formation of the subject as presented through descriptions of the fort-da game and the oceanic feeling, and Freud’s description of the limits of phantasy and reality. Freud’s writings on religion figure prominently here. I conclude by examining the deployment of individual relations through social space in Freud’s writings and the link between place and character laid out in Moses and Monotheism. The result demonstrates the importance of space in a number of aspects of Freudian psychoanalysis and frames Freud as a thinker with important contributions to make to the spatial turn in the humanities and social sciences.