Self to Selfie

This course explores the concept "self" in anthropology and psychoanalysis. In many cultural traditions, from Buddhism in Asia to psychoanalysis in the West, the self is an important object of speculation. Through written and visual material (ethnography, psychoanalysis, literature, philosophy, and film) we examine three questions: How is the self formed? Under what conditions can the self change? What is the self's relationship to the phantasmatic and digital? Our goal is to arrive at a deeper and more nuanced understanding of the self as an object of study, and of the ethical and social implications of this understanding.