- America on the Couch

Catalog description

A consideration of selected topics in the fields of cultural studies and psycho history. Through interdisciplinary materials, students will explore the rich literature of psycho historical interpretation, attempting to understand personal motivation, emotional character, and abnormal behavior in both prominent American figures and in the nation at large. Topics include conversion theory in the Salem witchcraft trials, infantilism and paternal authority in the age of Jackson, sentimental regression in the Civil War era, George Custer and the schizophrenic personality, neurasthenia in Victorian America, paranoia in the Nixon years, and narcissism in the "me" decade of the 1970s. 300-level courses in American Studies are not ordinarily open to first-year students except by permission of the instructor.