Fun With Freud and Ryan

“Freud for Beginners” by Richard Appingnanesi and Oscar Zarate followed in the footsteps of the previous text we have read, “Marx for Beginners”. Both of these texts took a fairly complex subject area and broke it down into easily understood ideas as well as educational and enjoyable illustrations. This particular book gave a description of early psychology as well as the ideas and life of Siegfried Freud. Speaking on the unconscious and the many different complexes that can affect the human mind, Appinganesi and Zarate give the reader a glimpse into the elaborate theories of Freud which are still common place in the field today. When reading through the book there were two ideas that stood out greatly above the rest of the context. Each of these topics seemed widely interesting and also had a strong and almost natural link to the world of arts and the artist.
Siegfried Freud’s idea of the unconscious was one that seemed to be met with hostility due to it diminishing the control that the human being holds. To society of the day, this took a great amount of control out of their own hands and suggested that the human animal could be affected mentally by events repressed from their past with little control of it in the present. Freud suggested many different complexes as well as stages in human development which also brought a great sense of discomfort to those confronted with the ideas. This theory, when coupled with the conscious, suggests the contrast between external and internal sourcing. These ideas can fall back to that of the mind’s perception of the world and the uncontrolled reaction to the things that a body experiences. These events are then stored in the unconscious mind and referenced even if unwillingly in the creative process.
The second idea that seemed fairly interesting was one suggested to during Freud’s search to the answer of if the human mind is centered so strongly on sexual urges then what represses them if it has to be one of a non-sexual nature. Through his many theories and ideas that attempted to answer this question the text alluded to that of survival. While speaking on the love instinct, the authors strike on the idea that it is only natural for all organism to strive toward survival whether this be to fight against death or in the idea of survival through the continuation of biological traits in offspring. This idea is a strong one even though it is only quickly mentioned. It is an idea that seems quite embedded in the terms of the creation of art. For although art is seen greatly as an expression of emotion or a message, is it not almost naturally the intent of each artist to create a piece that will outlast their lifespan, whether it be physically or through the works documentation and affects on the viewer? With pieces that survive on in either method the creator achieves a sense of survival that lingers beside the idea of immortality.