Freud revolutionized current thinking since the mid-19th century, throughout the early 20th century and until his death. From it there were dissident psychoanalysts, who opted for new paths, and others, collaborators, who advanced in their theories. Psychoanalysis, as a whole, created a life of its own and became one of the most emblematic sciences of the 20th century.

Freud's ideas win over the common thinker

Most sciences, as they become more complex and more sophisticated, tend to distance themselves from the lay public, become the domain of specialists who inevitably end up segregating knowledge among their peers. However, Freud's concepts about Dreams, the Unconscious, Sexuality and Faulty Acts became known and reached a huge number of people, getting very close to the lay public around the globe. Somehow, more or less, depending on the level of information, it can be appreciated, commented on, reflected on, or at least quoted, by all types of people.

In two years, two books will change the world forever

With Freud's books, The Interpretation of Dreams (1900) and Psychopathology of Everyday Life (1901), all people, not only those with psychosomatic symptoms, have been able to take advantage of their theories and fit in and insert them in some way . Curiosity about subjects as intriguing and thought-provoking as dreams or sexuality, quickly generated the desire to understand or at least approach their theories.

Freud and Art

In Art, Freud's influence was absolute for painters like Salvador Dali, Magritte and so many others who used dreams to build one of the most well-known movements in Art History, Surrealism. But Freud's ideas did not only have a contemporary effect and that continues today, all his thinking also had a retroactive effect. Everything that was done in terms of Art can now be analyzed from its point of view. In this way, Freud also promoted a new reading about Man, about everything that Man had done until then. Thus, we have a whole new old world to rediscover, to analyze, to unravel and make it part of what we are today, to become part of it. In this short article I will cite some works of art easily found in books or on the Internet.

Forgotten and rescued forever

Today we have the history of all areas of knowledge extremely widespread and compartmentalized in periods, stages of development and the authors and personalities who made it. Today the Internet globalizes knowledge and we are practically borderless when it comes to accessing information. But it was not always so. In the History of Art, many painters were completely forgotten after his death or were relegated to a secondary or even non-existent level. This happened to one of the figures we now consider extremely rich. I'm talking about Hieronymus Bosch, a Dutch painter who was born in Hertogenbosch in 1450 and died in 1516. It is considered, due to the lack of records, that he never left his hometown, however, in his work, he made one of the greatest trips that a human being can make a trip to the world of the imaginary, the fantastic and the dreams. His works contain a complex network of symbols, scenes of sin and temptation, allusions to alchemy and a whole arsenal of possibilities for experimentation in terms of sexuality. Within this panorama, any psychoanalyst will need his whole life to discern the enormous range of representations of this painter, such is his originality, depth and amount of details in his works to be considered. In terms of lack of judgment and feeling free to paint and express whatever comes to mind, the essence of Freud's Free Association method, Bosch seems to be exemplary because in his paintings he seems to expose absolutely all the images that he sees to that are produced directly by your unconscious, without censorship, repression or judgment. To cite just one example, I will use the triptych called Jardim das Delicias. In this picture you can see a vast amount of sexual possibilities involving people, animals, demons, saints and even botanical elements. You can also appreciate in the third part, which refers to Hell, all kinds of torture, depravity, masochism and sadism. Many possibilities for satisfying the desire can be paralleled there or find an echo, however small. Bosch then becomes one of the most perfect examples of sublimation of wishes in the form of art. A painter who will be forever testing any psychoanalyst's analytical skills without ever running out of possibilities.

Chiaroscuro - Conscious and Unconscious

Another painter, also Dutch, is Rembrandt (1606-1669). He was characterized mainly by establishing his figures in points of luminosity as opposed to large parts of the work in full darkness, as if the scene or people involved in the painting were emerging from the dark, which, in terms of Italian expressions used by historians and critics of art is called chiaroscuro (chiaroscuro). The analogy with Freud's work is established when we think of the Unconscious, all of it is plunged into great darkness, preventing us from discerning exactly what is on the dark side of the work. An example is the painting The Philosopher Thinking. It is a beautiful work produced only in rich earth tones ranging from yellow to darker brown. It depicts on the left side an elderly person sitting in the living room of his house and seems to be reflecting; on the right, someone seems to stoke the fire in the fireplace, and in the center of the painting a large spiral staircase rises to the top floor, but the bottom steps of that staircase end in complete darkness. In this way, it is as if the part of the Conscious was there represented by the man reflecting illuminated by the light coming from the window, the Pre-conscious portrayed in the ideas being stoked by the fire of the fireplace shrouded in darkness, and, in the center, a ladder leading mysteriously to the enormous darkness of the Unconscious. The whole picture produces in the viewer a desire that is practically impossible to contain, to climb the steps of that ladder, a desire to search, to discover the most hidden feelings in the darkness of the Unconscious.

Storms and delusions

The third painter I will quote, also Dutch, needs no introduction, he is VanGogh. He suffered from psychotic episodes and hallucinations, his painting is characterized by brushstrokes that bring enormous expressiveness to being wavy and punctual, generating a great effect of mobility in his works. Through painting, he sought refuge for his troubled mind where madness and art went hand in hand. If Freud had the possibility to treat him, he would certainly obtain favorable results, however, Van Gogh kills himself with a revolver in the middle of a wheat field in 1890, when Freud started his studies and started his journey towards the creation of Psychoanalysis . His self-portraits are particularly strong, showing his deepest emotions at different times, subject to the most different deprivations.

An old new world to be rediscovered

I cited three painters, many others can be cited, the whole history of mankind to be seen and reviewed under the perspective of Psychoanalysis.