The “richest ideas” of the nineteenth century, Nietzsche tells us, can be found in the writings of Ralph Waldo Emerson. A towering figure whose influence can be felt not only on the American intellectual tradition but European philosophy (through Nietzsche), the foundations of psychology (through William James), and even contemporary psychoanalysis (in the writings of Adam Phillips, for instance), Emerson continues to shape our notions of the self.

Participants in this 5-month Psychological Humanities and Ethics workshop, led by Professor Matthew Clemente, will meet from 7:00 to 8:30 PM EST on the second Monday of each month from January to May to examine the insights and ideas of one of history’s most formative psychologists. The workshop will entail reading Emerson not as a philosopher or literary thinker but as a proto-psychotherapist, a precursor to today’s great theorists. Participants will trace the early understandings of such fundamental psychological concepts as consciousness, the self, experience, and subjectivity to the works of Emerson and will explore the concepts of self-reliance, achievement, solitude, ethics, and desire. By the end of this course, participants will have an in-depth knowledge of the major works and ideas of one of modernity’s most prominent and influential thinkers.