Psicoanalisis del Arte / Psychoanalysis of Art

by Sigmund Freud, Luis López-Ballesteros y de Torres (translator)

Ninguna teoría acerca del funcionamiento y estructura de la mente ha ejercido tanta influencia ni ha adquirido un estatus tan preponderante como la doctrina psicoanalítica, cuyas categorías y explicaciones no tardaron en convertirse en núcleo de un modo radicalmente nuevo de entender la realidad psíquica que ha marcado de forma notable el mundo moderno. "Psicoanálisis del arte" reúne cinco ensayos en los que Sigmund Freud (1856-1939) estudia aspectos de la vida o la obra de Leonardo da Vinci, Goethe, Dostoyevski, Miguel Ángel y W. Jensen, mostrando las posibilidades del enfoque psicoanalítico en ese terreno.

Genres: Psychology, Art, Nonfiction

252 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1930

About the author

Dr. Sigismund Freud (later changed to Sigmund) was a neurologist and the founder of psychoanalysis, who created an entirely new approach to the understanding of the human personality. He is regarded as one of the most influential—and controversial—minds of the 20th century.

In 1873, Freud began to study medicine at the University of Vienna. After graduating, he worked at the Vienna General Hospital. He collaborated with Josef Breuer in treating hysteria by the recall of painful experiences under hypnosis. In 1885, Freud went to Paris as a student of the neurologist Jean Charcot. On his return to Vienna the following year, Freud set up in private practice, specialising in nervous and brain disorders. The same year he married Martha Bernays, with whom he had six children.

Freud developed the theory that humans have an unconscious in which sexual and aggressive impulses are in perpetual conflict for supremacy with the defences against them. In 1897, he began an intensive analysis of himself. In 1900, his major work 'The Interpretation of Dreams' was published in which Freud analysed dreams in terms of unconscious desires and experiences.

In 1902, Freud was appointed Professor of Neuropathology at the University of Vienna, a post he held until 1938. Although the medical establishment disagreed with many of his theories, a group of pupils and followers began to gather around Freud. In 1910, the International Psychoanalytic Association was founded with Carl Jung, a close associate of Freud's, as the president. Jung later broke with Freud and developed his own theories.

After World War One, Freud spent less time in clinical observation and concentrated on the application of his theories to history, art, literature and anthropology. In 1923, he published 'The Ego and the Id', which suggested a new structural model of the mind, divided into the 'id, the 'ego' and the 'superego'.

In 1933, the Nazis publicly burnt a number of Freud's books. In 1938, shortly after the Nazis annexed Austria, Freud left Vienna for London with his wife and daughter Anna.

Freud had been diagnosed with cancer of the jaw in 1923, and underwent more than 30 operations. He died of cancer on 23 September 1939.

Reviews

[David Vallvé · Rating 4 out of 5]

Psicoanálisis del arte ofrece una compilación de distintos artículos de Freud en torno al análisis de artistas reconocidos y/o sus obras. A excepción del Moisés de Miguel Ángel, los artículos son bastante interesantes porque Freud presenta aspectos de su teoría en relación al arte.
En los artículos relacionados con Leonardo Da Vinci, Goethe y Dostoievski explora aspectos más relacionados con eventos de las primeras etapas, mientras que en el relacionado con Jensen presenta el delirio y alcances en su tratamiento.

[Valeria Esparza · Rating 2 out of 5]

This should have not been the first Freud I picked up.

[Maria José · Rating 3 out of 5]

Freud es un genio exquisito. Su interpretación de un recuerdo de infancia de Leonardo da Vinci obedece a una analítica magistral: de la fantasía infantil de un búho sobre una cuna desarrolla una relación con la diosa Mut egipcia, y parte de ahí para extraer toda una serie de relaciones con sus teorías psicoanalíticas incluyendo el fetichismo, el miedo a la castración, una homosexualidad de carácter platónico y sublimación de la libido hacia el deseo de conocimiento. Sublime.
El resto de ensayos que contiene la obra no le andan a la zaga. En ellos analiza aspectos de la obra artística de Goethe, Dostoyevski y Miguel Ángel entre otros, estilizadamente perverso como es habitual en él.