Freud and Surrealism

Freud and Surrealism

Art and science are strongly interrelated fields. It has been through the recognition of the compatibility between art and science that some of the greatest achievements in both areas have been created. It was Michaelangelo, the artist, that made revolutionary anatomical discoveries in the pursuit of art, discoveries which would become an integral part of the development of medicine. The early mapmakers were the first to create mathematical grids, and those principles would be translated into perspective and proportion for artists recreating three-dimensional objects in two-dimensional art. Along this same vein, the scientific study of the mind, psychology, has had a significant impact on art. The father of modern psychology, Sigmund Freud, discovered the metaphysical "psyche" in his search to understand the symptoms of his patients, opening up science and medicine to the world beyond the physical. Artists latched onto his theories about the importance of the subconscious and readily applied them to an artistic movement which sought to link the subconscious world of the abstract to the conscious material world. This would become the Surrealist movement, bringing messages from the subconscious through interpretation of art. Salvador Dali was one of the great artists of the Surrealist movement, tying the bizarrely abstract to the mundanely real through dreamlike paintings. In Dali's 1944 painting "One Second Before Awakening from a Dream Caused by the Flight of a Bee Around a Pomegranate," the influence of Freud's theories about the subconscious and dream interpretation is integral to the understanding of this piece. Specifically, the way in which the dream-self of the piece feels about his relationship with his mother, his father, his sexuality, and his very existence are inherently Freudian.

Sexual imagery is an important part of both the Surrealist art movement and Freudian psychology, and it is evident in Dali's "One Second Before Awakening from a Dream Caused by the Flight of a Bee Around a Pomegranate," especially as it relates to one's mother. The prominent image of the bright red pomegranate fruit floating in the air of the painting above the sleeping figure is very obviously a reference to female genitalia. The vaginal shape of the fruit sets the theme of the dream created here by Dali. However, this is not a beautified or idealized female representation, for although it is made of sweet fruit, it has many obvious flaws. Among these flaws is the very infected, diseased appearance of the genitalia; the pomegranate seeds resemble genital warts or other sexually transmitted diseases in their lumpy, oozing existence. Additionally, the pomegranate vagina is transforming into a fish vagina. The second vaginal form is less deceptive in appearance. Whereas the fruit appears sweet and nutritious with a sense of pending rot, the fish is smelly and slimy outright. The fish represents the negative view of the female genitalia as having an unpleasant texture and odor. Both the pomegranate vagina and fish vagina are a flame-like color, and in fact the flame-fish seems to be directly emanating from the clitoral area of the genitals, the center of the passion and "fire" of female sexuality. The seeds of pomegranate also hold special meaning, for they are seeds of life, the eggs of the mother. They fall from the genital pomegranate into the space below in an ovulation of sorts, exposing the eggs to the outside masculine forces of the painting, hovering just above the water of the womb.

The female genitals in Dali's work are not inactive, but rather engaged in a symbolic act of simultaneous conception and birthing. The wide-open canal of the vaginal fish's mouth is emerging a tiger in an analogously openmouthed stance. The vaginal fish is giving birth to this raging tiger, a representation of the masculine child as it is born from the mother. The tiger child has ferocious teeth and claws, and appears in agony as it is separated from the mother. At the same time, the tiger is also phallic, penetrating the vagina with his penis-torso, paws hanging like testicles. From the tiger phallus emerges a smaller pouncing tiger, the attacking child of the union between the female and male. This smaller tiger is a threat to women, and it is confirmed that he is intended to kill the mother/woman figure because as it approaches the dreaming female, it becomes a gun. The gun itself is a phallic symbol, representing the violent nature of intercourse. In being born from his mother, the "bee" self of this dream painting becomes his father, who is a tiger, not a fish or fruit, which is a force that will destroy the mother. The father is a violent figure, and now when the self approaches women he sees his phallus as a weapon to violently pierce women, as all men are his father and all women are his mother. At the same time, the mother figure is lifting herself seductively to this phallus, inviting the violent sexual acts of the gun from her son and his father. This mother remains white, pure, and goddess-like, on a pedestal island, removed from her tainted cunt-self, and vulnerable to the impurities of the masculine forces.

The bee represents the self, having separated itself from the mother and realized it is not one with the mother, or with the father, but is in fact alone. He is insignificant, simply a byproduct of the genitals of his parents which are the focus of the painting, barely visible at all. Yet the bee has one identifying feature: the stinger. This phallus is again a weapon to cause pain, but only out of self-defense. The gun is the aggressive penis of the father (and the son which has become the father) which seeks to destroy, while the stinger penis of the bee self is that of the child feeling afraid and needing to defend himself.