S The Other Places of Psychoanalysis (KPKS, Teil I/II) (080359-SS 2025)

Psychoanalysis emerged in urban middle-Europe as a bipersonal therapeutic approach to neurosis. What transformations did it undergo—in practice and theory—as it traveled to and established itself in other places? How does it change when it is practiced in Tehran, Calcutta, or Buenos Aires, each with its own unique social, cultural, and institutional idiosyncrasies? Or when it is practiced in psychiatric hospitals to treat psychosis, which requires a clinical approach that is radically different from the treatment of neurosis? In what ways does the spatial itinerary of psychoanalysis alter its practice and the prevailing grounds of its concepts? And what do we learn about psychoanalysis itself by studying both how it changes in other places and its own discourse about space and place? The course begins with these questions to develop an understanding of how psychoanalysis works epistemologically. We will explore the geographical and clinical expansion of psychoanalysis to examine how its theory and practice transform in different contexts, and what aspects of its epistemology make these transformations possible. We will focus on key psychoanalytic categories and clinical frameworks, drawing on the work of psychoanalysts and psychiatrists from around the world. Some of the categories we will analyze are transference, neurosis, and psychosis, examining both individual psychoanalysis and collective forms of clinical treatment, such as the psychiatric hospital. The course will engage with the work of clinicians who reimagined psychoanalysis in new spaces, such as Francesc Tosquelles, Girindrasekhar Bose, and Marie Langer, also including canonical psychoanalytic texts by Sigmund Freud and Jacques Lacan. We will explore the geographical and clinical aspects together, connecting the different questions and problematics that each of them presents. The geographical expansion of psychoanalysis opens discussions on otherness, cultural difference, and universality. Its clinical expansion, on the other hand, presents us with the opportunity to discuss how theory and practice shape and transform one another. In this sense, our focus on psychoanalysis will provide a framework to approach broader issues related to epistemology, transnationality, and space.