INTRO

Artist as Shrink.

In relation to my practice I wish to look at how art is a translation from the internal to external – the unconscious mind to the conscious mind and into viewable artwork. I will look at psychoanalytic theories of the unconscious mind and the components of the psyche. I want to explore the idea of our unconscious mind harbouring thoughts and desires that on an unconscious level are translated into art.

When looking at the concept of the unconscious the first person to come to mind is the psychologist Sigmund Freud, unconscious meaning separate from the our consciousness.  The exploration of the unconscious was founded by Freud with a system known as ‘psychoanalysis’ but also includes contributions, other smaller systems stemming from the main system, from (his disciples) other psychologists; Carl Gustav Jung’s involvement with a separate yet valid system ‘analytic psychology;’ Alfred Adler with ‘individual psychology.’ The main understanding of this concept is “the belief that much human experience and behaviour springs from motives of which the individual is unconscious.” This system explains how there are three components of the psyche: “…the id exerting instinctive, libidinous force, the superego representing cultural, civilised forces and the ego which achieves some balance between the other two.” A Textbook of Psychology, 1980. Page 27