Religion and Psychoanalysis

Midterm Exam

The midterm exam will include definition, short answer and medium-length essay questions. It will draw on the case study materials used thus far, asking you to apply major concepts to that material. Cases include Gloria, Alan Streng, Martin Dysart, Rachel and Ramakrishna. The exam will also cover Freud’s writings on religion, as discussed in class.

Here is a list of the major concepts that we have covered in class thus far:

· The dynamic unconscious

· Defense

· Free Association

· Transference and counter transference

· The first topography

· Repression and sublimation

· Manifest and latent content

· Symbolization and the dream work (condensation, displacement)

· Libido

· Neurosis

· Symptoms as compromise formations

· The structural model (id, ego, superego)

· Oedipus conflict and its resolution

· Screen memories

· Life and Death instincts

· The paranoid-schizoid position

· The depressive position