The International Journal of Indian Psychology ISSN 2348-5396 (e) | ISSN: 2349-3429 (p) Volume 4, Issue 4, DIP: 18.01.119/20170404 DOI: 10.25215/0404.119 http://www.ijip.in | July-September, 2017 Research Article Psychology in Art: The Influence of Freudian Theories on Surrealist Art Nitansha Nema1* ABSTRACT “Surrealism”, which developed out of Freudian studies of the functions of the mind, was initially conceptualised in Paris with the publication of the Manifesto of Surrealism by poet and critic André Breton. Soon enough it culminated into an international intellectual and political movement. For artists, the undulating contours of the mind and human psychology as explained by Freud were nothing less than an afflatus that could be transformed into marvelous works of art. Today, we frequently encounter numerous works of Dali, Kahlo, Miro, Magritte and Oppenheim, without appreciating the man who, other than providing inspiration to these artists, was also fundamental in identifying that ‘inspiration’, which was till then considered a gift from the Holy Spirit, could actually be found embedded deep in our own unconscious. It was this ‘inspiration’ that Surrealist Artists sought to bring out in their works by applying processes like Automatism and the use of dream diaries. It marked a whole new era where art was being influenced by psychology. This paper aims at analysing Freudian influence on Surrealist Artwork and developing a multi-dimensional and more profound understanding of Freud’s seemingly bizarre ideas. This has been done by critically evaluating a total of six paintings, two each by Dali, Kahlo and Magritte that have been chosen on the sole ground that they all demonstrate different Psychoanalytic techniques devised by Freud. Further, a cross-cultural analysis has been done to provide a more intricate understanding of the latent concepts explained in the paintings. Upon examination of these works through this paper, it becomes clear how Rene Magritte employed metaphorical symbols in exploring the issues of visual perception and optical illusions, how Salvador Dali used Freudian symbols to embark upon a spectacular picturization of the world of human dreams and how Frida Kahlo found peace at last by channeling the bubbling cauldron of her traumatizing past found in her unconscious into her vibrant paintings. Through a thorough analysis of these works, this paper enables the reader to develop a more lucid understanding of Freudian ideas that inspired the avant-garde movement that marked the paintings of the early 20th century. Keywords: Art and Psychology, Surrealism, Freud, Magritte, Dalí, Kahlo, Paintings and Psychology, Automatism, Dream Theory, Freudian Unconscious 1 Scholar, Dr. Ram Manohar Lohiya National Law University, Lucknow, India *Responding Author Received: August 7, 2017; Revision Received: September 16, 2017; Accepted: September 25, 2017 © 2017 Nema N; licensee IJIP. This is an Open Access Research distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (www.creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any Medium, provided the original work is properly cited. Psychology in Art: The Influence of Freudian Theories on Surrealist Art The journey of a student of Psychology is impossible without frequent encounters with Dr. Sigmund Freud. Though in Robin William’s opinion of him in Good Will Hunting, “Freud did enough cocaine to kill a small horse,” one can cast no aspersions on his contribution to the field of Psychology. Remarkably enough, he is one of those few Psychologists who have been instrumental in shaping not only our notions of Psychology, but also those of History, Art, Literature, Culture, Psychiatric Medicine and unsurprisingly Greek Mythology. Like Dr. Sean Maguire (Robin William’s character in Good Will Hunting), Freud is considered a man of ridiculous ideas by many of those involved in the practise and teaching of Psychology, though no course in Psychology across the word is devoid of the concepts like the id, ego and super ego, dream analysis, motivated unconscious and the like. Freud’s influence is so pervading that words and phrases introduced by him through his theories like libido, denial, repression, cathartic, neurotic and Freudian slip (Fisher & Greenberg, 1996) have augmented the average English speaker’s lexicon. A Neurologist by profession, Freud was deeply intrigued by the human mind and the various ways in which it functions. This compelled him to explore the human mind like no one before him had. He believed that human beings are great at deception, though they don’t always lie deliberately. According to him, we rationalize our deepest fears, sorrows and shortcomings and bury them in the deepest corners of our mind, which he named the ‘unconscious.’ He used the metaphor of an iceberg to depict the psyche, or personality, in order to emphasize that nine-tenths of it lies submerged in the realm of the unconsciousness. (Engler, 2014) In 1923 “The Ego and the Id” was published by Freud. The book encompassed his final theory of a threefold structure of personality. Of this threefold structure, the superego was supposed to internalise the values, ideals and moral standards that our parents and teachers inculcate in us throughout our childhood. The ego represents oneself whereas, the id, which is the most important of them all according to Freud represents the core of our being. Freud described the id as a “chaos, a cauldron full of seething excitations” The id includes our most primitive desires and urges; it works basis the pleasure principle seeking immediate tension reduction, taking no precaution and acting in an impulsive and irrational way. (Freud, Manifest Dream Content and Latent Dream Thought, 1922) The Surrealist Era and how Freud inspired it Before talking about Surrealism, it is imperative that I briefly acquaint the reader with the various styles and forms of art that pre-dated it so as to make Freudian influence of Art more discernible. In the early hundreds, when the world has just begun according to Christianity, the focal point of art was religion. Back in 290AD, Christianity was a newly found religion which was being persecuted greatly in Rome. It needed a medium to spread its message; a medium comprehensible by everyone, the rich and the poor, the literate and the illiterate. That medium was art. For centuries Christianity used art for a clear and understandable purpose: to make its message more resonant, emotionally attractive and popularly appealing. Art was like © The International Journal of Indian Psychology, ISSN 2348-5396 (e)| ISSN: 2349-3429 (p) | 201 Psychology in Art: The Influence of Freudian Theories on Surrealist Art a kind of advertising for its ideas. Christian art went on to produce extraordinary cathedrals, paintings, sculptures, celebrating and enhancing the prestige of its message. Both in the east as well as in the west, art’s function was evident: to support the truths set down by religions and to make ideas more easily digestible. (Gombrich, 1966) Later in the 1800s the imperial class dominated art. Art began acting as propaganda for political causes. Kings like Louis the XIV and Napoleon did a lot of propagandising with art. In 1833 in Paris, the poet, novelist and critique Théophile Gautier published an essay about art arguing that art must free itself from the vile agendas of religions and government. The new generation of Romantic artists made his message, “L’art pour l’art”; “art for art’s sake” (Gautier, 1835) their motto. They believed that true art serves nothing at all; it is an end in itself and does not try to change or do or speak about anything. They prized intuition, passion, suffering, genius, the power of nature and individual heroics. The early 20th century was marked by new innovations and discoveries in every field. Great geniuses like Charles Darwin, Sigmund Freud, Friedrich Nietzsche and Albert Einstein were refuting existing principles and propounding new theories. (Gautier, 1835) It was in these circumstances that Surrealism was born. The pioneer of this movement was André Breton. He was greatly inspired by the Freudian Theories of Automatism and Free Association and how the undulating contours of the mind, the seething cauldron of the unconscious and our most primitive urges and desires may be explored through these exercises. In his 1924 Surrealist Manifesto, Breton defined Surrealism as “Psychic automatism in its pure state, by which one proposes to express…the actual functioning of thought…in the absence of any control exercised by reason, exempt from any aesthetic or moral concern.” (Breton, 1969) Surrealist Art sought to capture visual imagery from the subconscious mind to create art without the intention of any sort of logical comprehensibility. Surrealist works are known for being bizarre. They possess an element of surprise, unexpected juxtapositions and non sequiturs. Surrealism propagated the idea that ordinary or depictive expressions are vital and this came directly from the fascination of artists with the Freudian analysis of the subconscious. The artists embraced these idiosyncrasies. The realm of the subconscious was where the truest reality resided and they tried to depict this on their canvasses. (Willette, Surrealism and Freudian Theory, 2011) The rigour of socialisation (superego) represses the primal desires of human beings (id). However, through displacement and transference or substitution, the mind tries to bring these