Twelve the UNCONSCIOUS in SURREALISM

Twelve

THE UNCONSCIOUS IN SURREALISM

Tracing the sources of the surrealist school is not difficult because its founda- tions were frequently acknowledged by the founder, André Breton, in his differ- ent manifestos and in his other works. Breton acclaims Sigmund Freud as his first and principal master. Surrealism in its original form aimed only at being a poetic application of Freudianism. Freud’s critique of ideas is, according to Bre- ton, “la seule vraiment fondée” (1962, p. 191) (the one and only truly founded [authorized]). Freud gets credit for destroying the distinction between the normal and the abnormal though many other psychologists and psychiatrists have held the same view. The person passes from one state to another by degrees, without appreciable notice of the transition. The second manifesto of surrealism contains a long quotation by Freud that has its place here because it throws light on a poetic doctrine founded on the unconscious:

Plus on approfondit la pathologie des maladies nerveuses, plus on aperçoit les relations qui les unissent aux autres phénomènes de la vie psychique de l’homme, même à ceux auxquels nous attachons le plus de valeur. Et nous voyons combien la réalité, malgré nos prétentions nous satisfait peu; aussi sous la vie de fantaisie qui, en réalisant nos désirs, compense les insuffis- ances de l’existence véritable. L’homme énergique et qui réussit, c’est celui qui parvient à transmuer en réalités les fantaisies du désir. Quand cette transmutation échoue par la faute des circonstances extérieures et de la faiblesse de l’individu, celui-ci se détourne du réel: il se retire dans l’univers plus heureux de son rêve; en cas de maladie, il en transforme le contenu en symptômes. Dans certaines conditions favorables il peut encore trouver un autre moyen de passer de ses fantaisies à la réalité, au lieu de s’écarter définitivement d’elle par regression dans le domaine infantile; j’entends que s’il possède le don artistique, psychologiquement si mystérieux, il peut, au lieu de symptômes, transformer ses rêves en créa- tions artistiques. Ainsi échappe-t-il au destin de la névrose et trouve-t-il par ce détour un rapport avec la réalité. (Ibid., p. 192, note) [The more we examine closely the pathology of nervous illnesses, the more we notice the relationships that connect them to other phenomena of man’s psychic life, even to those to which we attach the most value. And we see how little satis- faction reality gives us in spite of our pretensions; also in fantasy life, which, by realizing our desires, compensates for the insufficiencies of real life. The energetic man who succeeds is the one who arrives at transmitting the fantasies of desire into real life. Whenever this transformation occurs because of external circumstances and the weakness of the individual, the 298 THE UNCONSCIOUS IN PHILOSOPHY AND LITERATURE

latter turns away from reality; the person reverts to the happier dream world; in the case of sickness, he transforms the content into symptoms. Under certain favorable conditions, the person can also find some means of emerging from his fantasies into reality. This stands in contrast to turning away from reality by regressing into the infantile domain; I understand that if he possesses the artistic gift (aptitude), psychologically so mysterious, he can transform his dreams into artistic creations instead of becoming symp- tomatic. Thus, he can escape the destiny of neurosis, and he can find by this detour a connection with reality.]

Other writers, in either philosophy or literature, have furnished Breton with ideas and precepts and have helped him to formulate his doctrine with more precision. He quotes Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel, Ludwig Feuerbach, and Eduard von Hartmann: “tirant d’une théorie de l’inconscient à base ultra- pessimiste une affirmation nouvelle et optimiste de notre volonté de vivre” (ibid., p. 170) (what emerges from a theory of the unconscious with an ultra-pessimist base is a new and optimistic affirmation of our will to live). Among the poets, Breton mentions Guillaume Apollinaire, whom he praises for the conscious and voluntary incoherence of Calligrammes (1918) (Calligrams) and Les mamelles de Tirésias (1997) (The Breasts of Tiresias) and for the importance he attributes to fortuitous events in shaping psychological states (Breton, Les pas perdus, no page number). Jean-Nicholas-Arthur Rimbaud must be considered as an ancestor of surrealism for his “Alchimie du verbe” (1873a) (“Alchemy of the Verb”) and the “long, immense, raisonné dérèglement des sens” (long, immense, and rational disorder of the senses). For this reason, the surrealist authors acknowledge their considerable debt to Une saison en enfer (Rimbaud, 1873b; Breton, 1924a, p. 206) (A Season in Hell), but their unstinted admiration goes to Isidore Lucien Ducasse, known as Comte de Lautréamont, “l’inattaquable” (the unassailable). His Les chants de Maldoror (Lautréamont, 1947) (Maldoror’s Songs) are de- clared to be “une lueur inoubliable” (ibid., p. 200) (an unforgettable gleam). The manifestos of surrealism have only scorn and sarcasm for the other French poets, especially Charles-Pierre Baudelaire, and for Edgar Allan Poe, so dear to Baude- laire, and Stéphane Mallarmé: “Crachons en passant sur Edgar Poe” (Breton, 1962, p. 158) (Let us spit in passing on Edgar Poe). Even Rimbaud, with the exception of Une saison en enfer, either was deceived or wanted to deceive us, and Paul Claudel gave an interpretation “déshonorante” (disgraceful) of Rim- baud’s thought (ibid., p. 157). Breton gave the following definition of surrealism:

Surréalisme, n. m. Automatisme psychique pur par lequel on se propose d’exprimer, soit verbalement, soit par écrit, soit de tout autre manière, le fonctionnement réel de la pensée. Dictée de la pensée, en l’absence de tout contrôle exercé par la raison, en dehors de toute préoccupation esthétique.