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Sigmund Freud’s Journey from ‘Libido’
Theory to the ‘Unconscious’ Theory in Art
https://www.ijariit.com/manuscripts/v7i4/V7I4-1451.pdf
Author Ridhi
Sarraf Riddhima
International renowned artist and awarded with fellowship by
culture ministry of India
From time to
time all art and aesthetics reflect the current intellectual trends of their
time.
Sigmund Freud
of Austria, a revolutionary, the great physician of the human mind, the founder
of psychoanalysis, was not only a neurologist, psychiatrist, but also a
philosopher, writer, poet. In short, he did not leave any subject untouched.
Sigmund Freud discussed psychoanalysis as a way to deal with psychopaths and as
an intellectual discipline.
A kind of upheaval or revolution of ideas was
by Sigmund Freud a medical man who founded the science of psychoanalysis.
Psychoanalysis initially emerged as a technique to treat mental illness, which
was related to mental diseases. Then Freud tried to probe deeper into the
unknown realm of the unconscious and was successful in this. Freud also
conducted psychoanalytic studies on art and thus attempted to find unconscious
factors within the artist's own psyche.
A famous conception about Freud's
theory-
Freud's
theory - libido is often defined only in relation to amorousness. But this
theory of Freud is much broader and deeper than this. This energy generally
discusses the subject of the corporeal, but it also analyzes other diverse and
broader states of mind. According to them, a large part of our brain is
unconscious. He explained it as saying that mental energy is like a great
reservoir; it includes mental impulses, primitive emotions and desires and felt
pain etc.
Freud's ideas about art seem like
sensuality. But he interpreted both art and dreams as expressions of desires
powerfully active in the unconscious. According to him, art is the fulfilment
of man's insatiable desires. Freud's aesthetic theory presented such subjective
and discordant theory.
But his
discovery was so important that not only it did transform psychological theory,
but revolutionized the entire intellectual world and post-Freud thought was not
as before.
Before
understanding Freud's ideas of art, it is necessary to take a look at his other
psychoanalytic aspects as well -
Oedipus and Narcissus Doctrine –
The heroes
of Greek myths have been fascinating to psychoanalysts, who regard them as
symbols of human intrapsychic life, development and conflicts. Many of these
gods and heroes, such as Oedipus, Electra, Eros and Narcissus, have been named
after psychological conditions, conflicts, and illnesses. Freud chose the myth
of Narcissus to symbolize a self-absorbed individual whose libido is invested
in the ego rather than in other people. The term narcissistic personality
disorder, also derived from myth, describes a self-loving character with grandiose
feelings of uniqueness.
His study
emphasized the identification of childhood events that can affect the mental
function of adults. Genetic and then developmental aspects gave psychological
theory its characteristics.
According to Freud, dynamic
personality formation and other ideologies -
Freud
considered the nature of the mind or personality to be dynamic.
In general,
the development of the ability to do a task in a better way is called dynamic
development. And it is in gross (cognitive) and subtle (ignorant) form.
According to
Freud, the dynamic side of personality is formed by three stages.
1. Id
2. Ego
3. Super ego
According to
him personality is the name of the activities of our mind and body. According
to Freud, there are some mental elements which are not found in the conscious.
In this, desires are related to childhood wishes, sexual desires and mental
struggle etc., which are not even known to the person himself. Generally, the
person is not able to fulfil them in his day-to-day life and by taking these
distorted forms; these desires are present in front of the person in the form
of dreams or sudden practical abnormalities.
Id is born
with the birth of man. Its themes are desires that are related to libido and
want instant gratification.
The ego is
considered by Freud as self-consciousness which he described as the secondary
control of human behaviour. It is the organized part of the Id, its purpose is
to further the goals of the Id.
Para ego is
a kind of standard of behaviour, which reflects moral behaviour. It develops
over a period of time. Freud's ideas of personality are also called the theory
of psychosexual development. Freud has divided it into 5 stages -
1. Oral
stage - one year from birth
2. Anal
stage - 2 to 3 years
3. Phallic
stage - 4 to 5 years
4. Latency
stage - 6 to 12 years
5 Genital stages
- 12 to 20 years
On the basis
of the above theory, he gave the concept of Electra and Oedipus, which is a
very complicated and controversial theory. According to him many qualities and
characteristics of the lower animals are seen in man. And here in this theory
he has tried to define attraction towards opposite sex.
According to
him, only 1/8 part of the brain is conscious; the rest 7/8 part is unconscious.
Many times in our life, we find this unconscious state when suddenly some
social concepts break. Dreams, daydreams, slip of the tongue and small or major
lapses of memory are other manifestations of the unconscious.
According to
Freud, a work of art emanates from the three levels of the mind. Freud's art
theory is a dynamic theory and is full of energy, and he describes the artist
as a creator or reservoir.
Here we will
mainly explain his ideas about beauty or art.
Freud's discussion on poetry, art and
beauty -
Although
Freud never presented a very mature and complete idea of art, yet we can know
his ideas from his various essays, books and lectures.
Some of his
works -
Leonardo da
Vinci,
The
Interpretation of Dreams,
The Relation
of Poet to Daydreaming,
Wish Fulfilment
and the Unconscious,
On
Creativity and the Unconscious: Papers of the Psychology of Art, Literature,
and Religion
According to
him, if the part of our brain remains insatiable or in repression, then it
never ends. That is, those unsatisfied desires remain buried somewhere and
those desires constantly struggle to come out. But these are stopped by the ego
which appears as a reflection of the outside world. Those desires are seeking
pleasure, yes they are not satisfied at the level at which they initially
appeared as instincts.
Some of the
ways that one presents the gratification of this unconscious desire are -
Anna Freud
who was Freud's daughter, herself has discussed these main defence mechanisms.
Because through these the ego can block itself from external reflections and
can also satisfy its unconscious desires. These brain resources are also
unconscious.
His thoughts
regarding art and the artist pass through the unconscious mind. Actually,
therefore, first in short we have to know the explanation of these brain
resources also.
Some of
these are as follows –
Repression: suppression
means to completely stop or restrict those impulses which are not acceptable in
the outside world. As we often find, in religious places saying a person that
he is completely pure and he does not have such dirty thoughts thus he
suppresses many of his physical and mental desires.
Opposite:
means to turn an unwanted desire into an opposite desire, such as hate with
love. As it happen in the case with real brothers.
Turning
towards oneself: In this the person loves or hates himself. The above mentioned
narcissism is an example of love and masochism is an example of hate.
Displacement:
This is also an important mechanism in which the place of one object is taken
by another object. As some people themselves are suffering from the trouble
they demand justice or agitate against it in the society.
Neurotic
Symptoms: He has elaborated on hysteria or other imaginary diseases. According
to him, all these are the result of our repressed feelings.
Up gradation:
This is an advanced and socially supported dimension. This sublimation process
includes art, poetry, religion etc. Freud told that this is also the form of
our repressed desires but it is presented in a different way.
Freud has
described in detail about Leonardo, Novelist Dostoevsky and the religious man
Moses. According to Freud, the artist's subjects are influenced by his early
life. Such as the works of Leonardo -
Infantile
Fantasies of Vulture.
Fantasy
about female figure - Her Mother.
Monalisa -
Represents her mother's smile.
Revival of
Childhood - Revival of Childhood through Colour, lines and structure.
Madonna -
Mother is glorified as a portrait in art.
His Abnormal
Desire to Look - A Glimpse of Childhood
For Freud,
art is a symbolic summary of unconscious desires.
Here comes
the theory of dreams because dreams are the workshop of symbols.
Dream and art -
Dreams are mental
actions that seem meaningless but are never meaningless. They are fulfilling
our desires in another way. According to him, unsatisfied desires take the form
of dreams to manifest in sleep. First of all, big desires take a small form,
then they manifest in a perverted form in dreams. As if anger or aggression is
in the form of a knife or a pistol. The dream acts like a personal hidden
symbolic code. Dreams have a symbolic construction. And similarly this symbol
is cited in the form of fairy tale, folk song or poetry.
According to
Freud, the creation of dreams or art is identical. In both there is a journey
beyond daily life.
There are
some differences between art and dream - that art is an act done consciously or
in the knowledge, whereas dream is not.
Art is tied
to the medium whereas the dream is not.
In art,
there is variety in pictures, whereas dreams are of a strange kind.
The
individual desires of the artist take the form of an art picture or figure and
they are also enjoyed by other people, there are also various reasons for this
-
As fiction
presentation should not be personal it should be universal.
The topic
should be of engaging people.
The
principle of beauty should be expanded.
According to
Freud, art is a kind of reconciliation between the principles of pleasure and
mental functioning.
First, Freud
collects examples of an infinite number of desires - whether it is about the
punishment of Hamlet, or the various works about the only strong memory of
Vinci's mother, or Michelangelo's work on Moses in all the mental attitudes or
constellations are functioning in the same manner.
The art in them
act like the most personal dream. The artist not only presents an imitation of
the true life, but he rises above all by liberating himself.
Reference: Krishna's Aesthetics, Prakash Veereshwar
Nupur Sharma,
HindiSahity.com, Arash Javanbakht
https://hi.wikipedia.org
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