Sigmund Freud and Surrealism
Freuds philosophy and th
eories are important to my research as his work with the unconscious mind established the field of psychoanalysis. Sigmund Freud believed that the mind is always active whether conscious or unconcious – indicating abstract understanding of our psyche and exploring repressed memories and experiences buried by time. Freud believed, the best method of accessing these are through dreams. I am interested in Freuds belief that dreams provide access to these buried memories and self awareness as dreams are where your unconscious and conscious mind interact.
The Freudian concept of the dream was very powerful on the surrealists, influencing French poet Andre Breton to publish the Manifesto of Surrealism. For surrealists, the use of dreams was to unleash artistic freedom while exploring personal pyschological issues through the unconscious mind’s creativity. I am inspired by this movement, I feel using dreams as a world of imagination for the stage of mental battle highlights the unconscious minds role within ones identity.
Automastism
While exploring surrealism and Freudian philosophy, I came across the concept of Automatism. Freud used free association and automatic drawing/writing to explore the unconscious mind of his patients, this process was also used by surrealists to futher the principles of their work, it was said in Breton’s surrealist Manifesto ‘Pure psychic automatism, the dictation of thought in the absence of all control exercised by reason and outside all moral or aesthetic concerns’ – I feel this statement resonates well with Jean Dubuffet’s Art Brut as both movements exercise untraditional principles and sought to explore mental states.
Andre Breton was one of the earliest examples of automatism, particularly written works – aiming to write as rapidly as could be without consciously thinking or guiding the hand- I intend on practicing this process through drawing and writing, aiming to provide my development with first hand research.
FAYE TIKIC 