What role do society’s laws play in the development of our psyches (and our symptoms)? How does the legal system’s practice of punishment relate to our own wish to punish ourselves? How do the insights of psychoanalysis trouble the idea of the rational actor so precious to the state legal system? Through the study of these and other questions, this seminar examines what the study of the dynamic workings of the unconscious mind might reveal — both conceptually and practically — about the nature of law and legal systems, and about the contributions of law to the structure, development, and functioning of the human psyche. After gaining a basic understanding of psychoanalytic theory and practice through exposure to the writing of key thinkers in the tradition (from Freud, Lacan, Klein, and Bion to contemporary relational theorists) students will consider various concepts of common importance to legal and psychoanalytic thought. The seminar will raise material on topics such as guilt, conscience, judgment, agency, punishment, selfhood/subjectivity, relationality, trauma, and free speech (free expression/free association). Legal areas engaged will include criminal law, family law, children and the law, and various principles and doctrines in public and private law. Students will also reflect on what psychoanalytic ideas might offer in understanding legal education and the practice of law.
Justification:
Despite certain current courses that touch on mental health and the law in some fashion, Osgoode does not (and as far as I can tell has never had) a course on law and psychoanalysis. There is a tradition of such courses at leading law schools around the world, reflecting the role of psychoanalysis in the development not only of our intellectual history but in contemporary conceptions of selfhood and, indeed, modernity. Unlike the mental health micro, this seminar is not expressly focussed on the mental health of students as they become practitioners and unlike the law and psychiatry course, this seminar is not concerned with medical and biological conceptions of mental pathology and the role of psychiatrists. This seminar would certainly complement and amplify those and other mental health-related courses for interested students, but it is just as properly understood as an enrichment of our legal theory and philosophy offerings.
Method of Evaluation:
50% Final Research Paper
25% Paper-Related Assignments
15% In Class Assignment
10% Attendance/Participation
Successful completion of this course will satisfy the upper year research and writing requirement for the student’s second or third year.