Introductory Course In Psychoanalysis

In this two-semester, introductory program, students will be introduced to concepts that lie at the heart of psychoanalysis. The course is both theoretical and practical, with an emphasis on the famous case studies that Freud used to introduce his discovery of the unconscious. It also explores the conceptual frameworks that different schools of psychoanalysis have used to construct models of intervention. Psychoanalysis is both a body of theory and a clinical praxis, it also has a powerful research function. All of these elements will be touched upon in the course, over the duration of the year.



In one-and-a-half hour, weekly seminars, the teaching will cover the basic ideas of psychoanalytic practice, and the way they are implemented in the clinic. As the source from which all psychotherapies derive, psychoanalysis aims most potently to produce truthful knowledge, and this will be a theme of the course. The course is suitable for both those who intend to practice clinically, and others with a more general interest. Over the many years the course has been running, this seminar format has proved an accessible way to introduce psychoanalysis.



The course consists of 24 seminars over two semesters:

Program Of Theoretical And Clinical Studies In Psychoanalysis

The Australian Centre for Psychoanalysis offers a program of theoretical and clinical studies aimed at engaging participants in a systematic study of the founding concepts of Freudian and Lacanian psychoanalysis. The program covers eight foundational subjects taught over eight semesters, each 14 weeks long. Sessions are held on Saturday morning for three and half hours, delivered from the Treacy Centre in Parkville. The entire program provides a solid theoretical foundation for anyone interested in studying psychoanalysis and those wishing to become Analyst Candidates (Analysts-in-Training), and Registered Practicing Analysts with the ACP; for further details of this process please refer to Centre’s information about training



Participation in any of the subjects is open to any member or interested person but enrolment must be organised via the course co-ordinator and fees apply. Not all subjects are taught every year.

Foundational Areas of Study

1. Crucial problems in the psychoanalytic experience and contemporary clinical practice. Across the year the following problems will be addressed through the study of psychoanalytic cases.

• Preliminary interviews.
• Diagnosis in psychoanalysis.
• The fundamental rule: rationale and practice. The analytic discourse and the other discourses.
• Development and handling of the transference: theory and practice.
• Interpretation, construction and psychoanalytic act.
• Ethical questions arising from the clinical experience: position and desire of the analyst and of the analysand.
• The symptom and the fantasy: handling, interpretation and construction.
• Technical questions in the treatment of children and adolescents.
• Treatment of the psychoses: stabilisation, creation, invention, sinthome.
• The end of the analysis.
• The unforeseen, the unclassifiable and the impossible in the psychoanalytic experience. Indications and contraindications in psychoanalysis.

8. Special Clinical Problems

In the final semester of the program we allocate time to investigate clinical and conceptual questions that arise in the treatment of special conditions such as addictions, severe depression, psychosomatic phenomena, borderline conditions, atypical psychosis, transgender/sexual identity issues and other problems that arise in contemporary clinical practice.