Wednesday, November 21, 2007

Thanksgiving Post

I've dedicated this break to really concentrating on the project. Here is the progress I have thus far. This seems like a long post, and it sort of is. But I'm putting this up to track my progress because not only do I think its important, it helps me to organize the project and motivates me to continue. My goal is to have this bibliography turned in by the end of the break. I'll take the late hits, because rightfully so, I deserve them.

Annotated Bibliography

Source One: book

APA Citation:

Schwartz, J. (1999). Cassandra's daughter : A history of psychoanalysis in europe and america. London: Allen Lane.

Brief Summary and Critical Analysis

Although this book contained several chapters of insignificant information, Chapter 7, titled Expanding the Frontier: Psychoanalysis in the United States I, was very pertinent to my research and in collecting information. Essentially what the chapter discusses are issues in psychoanalytic development within the United States. Europe began the frontier building of psychoanalysis with Sigmund Freud in Austria, and Europe’s high-cultural appeal took this science beyond medical fields. Britain, France, Germany, and Austria – where Freud was from initially – were leaders in expanding on psychoanalytic thought through practices such as literature, philosophy, law, and other natural sciences. The United States, however, presented a different environment catering to an extension of medical practice. Individuals underwent psychoanalytic training as a branch of psychiatric practice.


Source Two
: scholarly journal

APA Citation:

Burnham, John C. (1982). The Reception of Psychoanalysis in Western Cultures: an afterword on its comparative history. Comparative Studies in Society and History, 24, 603-610. Retrieved October 31, 2007 from JSTOR.


Source Three: website

APA Citation:

Kirsner, Douglas (1998) Unfree Associations: Inside Psychoanalytic Institutes. Retreived September 24, 2007, from Wikipedia: http://www.human-nature.com/kirsner

Brief Summary and Critical Analysis

This source reviews the four major psychoanalytic institutes of the United States: New York, Los Angeles, Boston, and Chicago. Each institute underwent splits

New York is the largest institute, in number of analysts, in the United States and the world. Immediately after World War II, membership to the institute was regarded as prestigious because analysis dominated the field of psychiatry. Yet the institute eventually reformed, due to internal conflicts. Its weakness resided in its membership; a small oligarichy of The restructuring helped in reformulating the institution’s purpose and in giving the foundation greater solidarity.


Source Four: book

APA Citation:

Roazen, P. (2001). The Historiography of Psychoanalysis. New Brunswick, N.J.: Transaction Publishers.

Brief Summary

There are particular times which the introduction of psychoanalysis has been more receptive in America. America develops a romance with psychology. People should embrace psychology with an understanding that there are differing standards of what is right and wrong.

- Times if war

- When religion has waned. People are open to looking at ‘selfhood’ and not directing attention towards God.

The bread-and-butter of psychological development is yet to be done. Primary historical documents in the field remain almost untouched.

Part of the research process is discovering that a source is not useful. While the author uses some nicely painted language to describe his work, the essence of the material did not exactly capture the ideas I looked for. However, like I said, there were some points to be taken from the source.

Compared to other sources, this chapter to …approach. The author summarizes distinct analysts’ central to psychoanalytic development, and further discusses their impact on the field.

Philip Cushman looks at understanding modern conception of the self, deviating from traditional views of Freud. Spelling out the strengths of prominent psychologists immediately following Freud, gets away from instinctual orientations, which ultimately leads to understanding inadequacies. In researching these psychologists, Heinz Kohut and Donald Winnicott were important figures. Cushman says the avocation of consumerism promotes the idea of an ‘empty self’ which ultimately inhibits progression of psychoanalysis in the masses.

However, it does not mention cultural influence. I believe unearthing cultural impacts is significantly important in explaining inhibitors of widespread practices of the field. Again, what is important are how these developments have impacted the masses.

This source was hard to sift through. The approach I took to extract useful points was skim the reading, then summarize and condense what I found significant into a summary. This helped me to organize the information the source has to offer, and also better map out the project. I truly feel like I’m going somewhere. What I’ve done thus far is look atresources describing the cultural acceptance of psychoanalysis in America, as well as other parts of the world including: France, Great Britain, and Argentina. I then took a comparative approach and targeted specific causers of inhibitors of psychoanalytic reception in America.




I was looking at the criteria on the assignment sheet, and saw I've formatted my bibliography incorrectly. It's ok though, I'll keep trudging along until I finally put everything together. Leo was right, if you do this right adn do it well, it DEFINATELY helps with the final project. I'm excited about where this is going, and my goal is to do the extra work needed to have a good project.

I need a little break before I come tackle this assignment again.




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