📚 Philosophy · PsychologyPremièreTerminale⏱ 45 min

Educational Activity: Psychoanalysis in Class with Freud

A session to explore the unconscious from the mind of its inventor

🛋️

Vienna · 1900

Sigmund Freud

Format: Individual or pair work on Parlova

Group size: Whole class — 25 to 35 students

Curriculum: Final Year Philosophy Program — Consciousness / The Unconscious

Learning objectives

📖Knowledge

The fundamental concepts of psychoanalysis: unconscious, drives, repression
The Freudian method: free association, dream interpretation, transference
The major theses of The Interpretation of Dreams (1900)
The scientific and cultural context of Vienna at the beginning of the 20th century

🛠️Skills

Analyze a philosophical theory by directly questioning its author
Distinguish hypothesis, theory, and proof in a discourse with scientific pretensions
Confront Freudian thought with internal and external objections
Problematize the notion of consciousness and the unconscious in philosophy

🧠Critical thinking

Evaluate the scientific nature of psychoanalysis (Popper's criterion of falsifiability)
Identify the metaphors and limits of the Freudian model
Question the relationship between Freud's biography and psychoanalytic theory
Distinguish the psychoanalysis of 1900 from its later revisions and critiques

Recommended level (French system)

Première

High School

Terminale

High School

Curriculum reference: Final Year Philosophy Program — Consciousness / The Unconscious

Lesson plan

Total time: 45 minutes

📖10 min

Phase 1 —Introduction

Present Freud in 1900: he has just published The Interpretation of Dreams, he is a neurologist in Vienna, psychoanalysis is still a marginal idea. He deeply believes in his theory. Crucial reminder: he is unaware of the criticisms that will come.

💬20 min

Phase 2 —Conversation with Freud

Students question Freud on his fundamental concepts. Encourage questions on concrete cases (dreams, slips, phobias) rather than overly abstract questions. Freud likes clinical examples. The teacher can propose a fictitious 'case' to submit to Freud.

🔍10 min

Phase 3 —Collective Synthesis

What does Freud defend? What are his arguments? What objections can already be formulated since 1900? Construct the two Freudian topographies on the board. What questions does Freud have difficulty answering convincingly?

⚖️5 min

Phase 4 —Debate and Critical Perspective

Is psychoanalysis a science? An art? A philosophy? Students take a position in one argued sentence. Open up to Popper and the criterion of falsifiability if the level allows.

Skills practised

Argumentation

Formulate precise objections to a theory and evaluate the author's responses.

Philosophical Analysis

Decompose Freudian concepts and relate them in a coherent system.

Critical Thinking

Question the limits and scientific nature of a theory from within its own presuppositions.

Contextualization

Place psychoanalysis in Vienna 1900 — before neuroscience, before Jung, before Popper.

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