The Treachery Of Images

"Surrealism. Pure psychic automatism, by which one proposes to express, either verbally, in writing, or by any other manner, the real functioning of thought. Dictation of thought in the absence of all control exercised by reason, outside of all aesthetic and moral preoccupation."

 - André Breton, from The Surrealist Manifesto, 1924 

André Breton

Surrealism is an artistic movement from the early 1900s. Despite being rooted in the early 20th century, it is a movement which still has a huge influence on visual art and culture to this day. Andre Breton (pictured above) is widely regarded as the founder of surrealism, having written an entire manifesto on the subject in 1924. With this manifesto, Breton aimed to show how surrealism could be applied to art, poetry, literature, as well as to any circumstance of life.

Surrealism is more than just artistic, although the likes of Salvador Dali, Man Ray and Elliott Earls may spring to mind... The cultural movement of surrealism hoped to change human life, and alter the way in which the world was seen. In the manifesto, Breton defined surrealism as "pure psychic automatism". The surrealists were particularly influenced by the work of Sigmund Freud, who used a variety of techniques which he believed tapped into a person’s subconscious, bringing underlying truths to light.

Sigmund Freud

The earliest examples of surrealist automatism are the writings of André Breton and others, produced by them simply writing down any words or phrases which came to mind. Free association is a psychoanalytic technique which was developed by Freud, who believed it was a way to unlock hidden thoughts and desires without any intervention or interruption from the therapist.

In traditional free association, the patient would be asked to lie down and to begin by saying or write down the first word or phrase which came into their mind, not necessarily in a linear pattern. The patient might come up with a string of completely incoherent or unrelated words and might move randomly between memories and thoughts. The idea is that free association reveals associations that might otherwise go unnoticed, or possibly that repressed memories or emotions might be uncovered.