10th October- Lecture notes

10th October

Freud, Psychoanalysis and Gender

Preparatory reading-

• Sigmund Freud, “Fifth Introductory Lecture on Psychoanalysis”
• Mulvey, Laura (1999) ‘Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema’

This lecture title and content is of specific interest to myself and my practice. I have studied psychology prior to my degree, throughout lower level education and A levels. Within the course taken, psychoanalysis made up a major part of the topic. We were required to not only know the historical origins of the practice but also modern applicatio and ethics. As this was a topic I enjoyed I was willing to investigate the subject at a deeper level and often found myself relating this back to my artistic practice. 

Therefore, as this lecture commenced I was already prepared with quite a lot of background knowledge. I had also re-read Freud's 'Fifth introductory lecture on psychoanalysis' to be sure that I was aware of the specific area we are required to investigate. His mention within the lecture of artistic means being a possible release of the unconscious is a notion that much of my current work is based upon. 

If a person who is at loggerheards with reality possesses an artistic gift (a thing that is still a psychological mystery to us), he can transform his phantasies into artistic creations instead of symptoms. In this manner he can escape the doom of neurosis and by this roundabout path regain his contact with reality.”
“It happens to be precisely the components of the sexual instinct that are specially marked by a capacity of this kind for sublimation, for exchanging their sexual aim for another one which is comparatively remote and socially valuable. It is probable that we owe our highest cultural successes to the contribution of energy made in this way to our mental functions.”
Freud, Introductory Lectures on Psychoanalysis, 1910

Beginning of lecture-Explanation/broad discussion of Freud's chronological placement and topics- this was the earliest of his time and although rejected now-once insightful and pioneering science. 

Psychoanalysis; a science of the mind and a model for adjustment

-tensions between conscious and unconscious spheres, childhood origins of neurosis

-sexuality and mental functions; impulse in everyday

-Conflict and trauma; Oedipus complex 

Key Concepts-

-The unconscious and structures of the mind, the mind as a dynamic interplay of forces

-Later model of the Ed, Ego and Super-ego

-The unconscious as a place of conflict, anxiety and desire

-Dreams; Latent and manifest content of the dreams 

-Trauma, mental illness and the 'talking cure' many saw it to be

-'Forgotten' memories and Transference 

-Brassai and Dali- Involuntary sculptures 1933

The everyday actions and small adjustments we make to things around us. When we are talking or not paying attention, the things we do are what speaks. Do these small movements have a Latent content?

This is something I consider within my own work. As I am making the small clay tiles or choosing the colouration for them, is this informed by more. The unplanned work has an aim of being psychologically cathartic, therefore, in theory they are releasing an aspect of my thought that has stemmed from unconscious processes. The uncontrolled work I do is similar to these small scale sculptures. 

-Louise Bourgeis 'Art as  guaranty of sanity' 1999

Within this work there is a visual aspect and a written aspect, yet this also appeals to a visual aesthetic. This work drew me to analyse its use of words and visuality together. Something my own practice is struggling with.  The limited use of colour or grandeur relays the words on a deeper level. The work is aiming to define itself yet also question the socially situated field of the arts sphere by way of assisting psychological sanity. This artwork, that speaks of art also, very simply displays how psychology can have a cathartic nature and relieve the unconscious . 

Repression 

Transference

Sublimation  

Concept of the Phallus and the phallic gaze was also discussed within the lecture. The phallic position of society is a far reaching discussion and although freud was one of the first too look into this. His own historical context hindered him. Later movements forward a feminist view of the phallic gaze are not only more progressive but more useful in understanding not just how male gaze is situated but why and how this was allowed to happen. Bracha Ettinger is a example within this phere, her featuring within the last book I read has lead me to investigate her further and also themes regarding the phallic gaze. (full reflection in another blog post)

Although his work was largely rejected in scientific progression- conceptualisation of his work and the other, more philosophical conclusions still stand today

Freud’s legacy, extensions of psychoanalysis(all highly complex and diverse systems of thought that are no more than sketched out here) G J Jung: the collective unconscious, myth, alchemy and magic
Wilhelm Reich: sexuality and revolution 

Jacques Lacan: the imaginary and the symbolic; the unconscious and language; lack and loss; desire and the gaze
Melanie Klein: symbolic relations, childhood, parenthood
Anna Freud (Freud’s daughter): child psychology, analysis for children
Juliet Mitchell: psychoanalysis and feminism
D W Winnicott: child psychology, the transitional object
and also…Herbert Marcuse: combining Freud and Marx in a utopian liberated politics
Edward Bernays (Freud’s nephew): unconscious impulses and public relations, advertising psychology

Gender, Representation and Identity
The final slide of the powerpoint looks at themes of Gender, representation and identity. The self portraits within the slide are telling of how personal documentation of identity can differ so greatly compared to the public's documentation.
Frida Kahlo features in this line up as an artist that famously dismissed gender roles to fluidly document her own life. Her heterogeneity inspired her work greatly and her own documentation of gender came innately through her artistic works.
This investigation of Frida Kahlo was a very interesting read and unearthed themes of not only her non-conventional gender politics but also the many other influences of her work.
https://www.gla.ac.uk/media/media_41183_en.pdf

Also featuring on the slide is an image of Theresa May wearing a Frida Kahlo bracelet. This to me is not only ignorant and Ironic on her part; but also majorly insulting to the amazing work Kahlo did during her life in working toward a classless system. Wearing that bracelet may have been a feeble attempt to appear in some way socially cultured. This also speaks volumes of May's own 'self representation' and the need for another figure to define her own. 
https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2017/oct/04/was-theresa-mays-frida-kahlo-bracelet-a-political-statement 

(Also see research on Bracha Ettinger in regard to gender and representation)


A political Use of psychoanalysis

• Mulvey, Laura (1999) ‘Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema’

As film is an area in which I am not familiar with, reading this section of 'Visual pleasures and narrative' was insightful and allowed me to reconsider how the phallic gaze extends to all areas of life, both modern and historical. 

The above extract provided as a resource for the second lecture is critical of not only patriarchal view but the political implications this holds over creative industry; namely film. Although film is not something I currently work with at large; my planned film project is immersing me more into the world of the cinematic. Therefore, I think it is vital to further educate myself of the social implications that film has had over time. Its placement within psychoanalytic theory is extensive and grasping part of this will help me analyse our work once completed. 

'psychoanalysis is thus appropriate here as a political weapon, demonstrating the way the unconscious of patriarchal society has structured film form' page 833

The unconscious' role played in the shaping of history is pivotal and can not be ignored when analysing things such as film production. The patriarchal gaze is something that affects all aspect of modern life as well as historical life. This could also be true when analysing how art is situated into this phere. 

'Woman's place as bearer of meaning not making of meaning' page 834

This pivotal quote honestly extracts the female position within society and as freud would have interpreted. Although pioneering, he was still in a white male ideology. The placement of this analysis has made me re consider my own film planning and places even more tension on the continuous, equal movement of men and women through the space.  

Concept of 'scopophilia' 

Summary of specific interest. Drawing the information in together to overlook the phallic gaze in cinema. The origins of the gaze, from the +/- notion of sexuality and female placement. This made me think a lot about the patriarchal power positions and modern capitalism, the monetary gain and loss.  Even if a female is in equal financial stance, the male gaze can reduce this to mean less. Although some see this as a power, ultimately a setback that the glass ceiling creates. There is contradiction of female showing threat of cstration so they are therefore reduced by the male gaze.