210 – How We Got Here: The Evolution and Epistemology of Psychoanalytic Thought 

Description: This 16-week course offers a comprehensive introduction to the development of psychoanalytic theory, tracing its evolution from Sigmund Freud to contemporary perspectives. Moving chronologically, we will explore the major schools of psychoanalytic thought and the distinctive conceptual “lenses” through which each understands the patient’s mind, the therapeutic relationship, and the analytic process. 

In addition to surveying these theoretical traditions, the course begins with a meta-theoretical inquiry into the epistemologies that shape psychoanalysis—how analysts determine what counts as knowledge, how theory emerges from clinical experience, and how assumptions about mind and method influence what we believe we see and understand. Throughout the semester, students will reflect not only on the content of psychoanalytic ideas, but also on the processes by which those ideas were constructed and revised. 
 
By the end of the course, participants will have a foundational understanding of the principal psychoanalytic schools, their charactertistic concepts and vocabularies, and the historical and epistemological contexts that shaped them. This grounding prepares students for more advanced study and clinical integration across theoretical perspectives, while cultivating a critical awareness of theory development itself.  

Target Audience: This course is intended for clinicians at the beginning to intermediate levels.

Prerequisites:  Every participant must be a matriculated student in the PCC’s Training Program (either track) and simultaneously enrolled in the Foundational Integrative Seminar 1.