The Reality of Dreams

Abstract

Sigmund Freud (1856–1939) was a Viennese physician and the founder of psychoanalysis (1, 2). His seminal The Interpretation of Dreams was published in 1899 (3). Psychoanalysis dominated psychology and psychiatry for much of the 20th century. What is relevant to this Science in the Arts series is that Freud's thinking also had a major influence on the arts. In the 1920s, his concepts stimulated the development of Surrealism (4–7). The main architect of the movement, the French poet Andre Breton, studied medicine and psychiatry and was inspired by Freud's ideas. The Surrealists rejected rationalism and focused their attention on the imagination. They maintained that the way to obtain insight into the subconscious was to explore psychic automatisms through spontaneous writing or painting. Such activities, which favored loose associations, were thought to liberate the inner self. Surrealists also maintained that the physical and the “inner” realities could be merged to create an absolute one that Breton called “surreality.” “Absolute” is perhaps not the best word: they actually saw surrealite as a superior, more complete reality (7). The first manifesto of surrealism …