Sigmund Freud & Carl Rogers regarding Louise Bourgeois

Sigmund Freud & Carl Rogers regarding Louise Bourgeoise's Case Analysis
Melanie Keiser
Theories of Personalities
March 1, 2015
Professor Stella Marrie

Sigmund Freud & Carl Rogers regarding Louise Bourgeoise's Case Analysis

Having viewed the documentary Louise Bourgeois, The Spider, the Mistress &
the Tangerine (2008), I find myself feeling inspired and grateful for having had the
opportunity to hear the profound words of Louise Bourgeois regarding life and art.
Louise Bourgeois is an interesting person to say the least, if not eccentric in many
ways. Her knowledge of her own self and how she has interpreted her emotions
and experiences into her art, shows that she is truly in touch with herself, and
recognizes that she is constantly changing. Louise seemed not to be interested in
impressing others with her art as she states my proof of success is whether it
does something to me, (referring to making art), if it makes me a nicer person and
it gives me pleasure. She uses art to express herself. Every portion of her lifes
emotions, from early childhood to the present is documented through her artwork
using an unending array of materials with which she has worked. Louise is an

Sigmund Freud & Carl Rogers regarding Louise Bourgeois

interesting case study, I will now look at how I would approach this case.
If I were counseling Louise, I would notice potential issues that were rooted in
her life that may find their way into a counseling session with her. Some things
that have the potential to cause intense emotions are the reality that her mother
was a perfectionist, her father wished that she was a boy and did not accept her
for who she was. Her father invited his mistress to live with the family, act as the
teacher, but sleep with him in his room. I dare to say that Louise could be
considered somewhat eccentric. Her honesty, sometimes brutal honesty perhaps
made relationships difficult. These are some of the highlights of Louises life that I
intend to highlight.
My analysis and observations of this documentary lead me to consider all the
possible theorists that we have studied in this class and consider which ones I
would focus on. Two theorists came to mind immediately. I felt that from what I
had learned about Louise and my perception of her and the theoriests, these two
personality theorists and their concepts would be helpful when relating her
artwork and her life experiences. The first one is Sigmund Freud, the second one
is Carl Rogers. Freud seemed to be an obvious choice because of his concept of
the influences of childhood experiences on adult behaviorand also the
unconscious and sexual motivation (pg. 22) specifically the phallic stage in which
he goes into the Oedipus conflict. Freud also worked with the meaning of
dreams. Louise also used dreams to work through her emotions as she shared in
the documentary. I chose Carl Rogers as the second theorist since I felt strongly
that Louise could be a poster girl for his concepts. Louises life demonstrated

Sigmund Freud & Carl Rogers regarding Louise Bourgeois

through her art could be a visual example of Carl Rogers theory and his
protection of the personhood of people in the humanist tradition. (pg. 125)
When creating her art, I feel that Louise has to be creating her subjective reality,
in other words, her art is her expression of what she is feeling at that given
moment. Rogers concept of congruence is evident in Louise inasmuch as she
incorporates her experience and her self and expresses it through her art. She is
able to articulate the emotion she has and also demonstrate how this helps her
work through intense emotion. She says in the documentary the purpose (of her
making art) is to express emotions. My emotions are inappropriate to my size. The
intensity are much to much for me to handle and this is why I transfer the
emotion into my sculpture. In addition, Rogers Development of the Self-Concept
considers Unconditional positive regard shown to the child facilitates the
formation of a positive self-concept, which is correlated with a high degree of
congruence between experience and the self. (pg. 130) This directly relates to
her relationship with her father.
In the documentary, Louise shared a story about her father. When Louise was
young, on Sunday nights after dinner with the family as his audience, her father
would say that he would now make a portrait of his daughter with the peel of a
tangerine. Then, my father would look and say 'why I am sorry my daughter does
not exhibit such beauty. My figure is very rich and obviously my daughter does not
have very much there, the little creature was just a girl' remembered Louise.
She was reminded again 50 years after this took place how she felt the audience
was laughing at them (girls) and her pain because of this was very great.

Sigmund Freud & Carl Rogers regarding Louise Bourgeois

According to Freud's theory, Louise could be identifying with the Electra conflict.
The child falls in love with the parent of the opposite sex and feels hostility
toward the parent of the same sex...the girl who is erotically attracted to her
father is frustrated since she lacks a part of her father's anatomy)-the penis (penis
envy). (p.18) The fact that Louise's father actually announced publicly his
disappointment in her lack of a penis, made this easy to identify Louise with
Freuds theory. Through the use of art as her expression of her past pain and
experiences, I believe that although Louise is still deeply saddened by her father's
tangerine peel figure and his harsh words, Louise has worked through much of
these feelings of inadequacy and put them to rest. At this point, I also want to
point out again that Rogers concept of self-concept pertains to this and her
fathers behavior toward Louise is shown to have caused her anxiety and self
doubt later in life, which she continues to struggle with.
Later in the documentary, Louise described a dream that she had after her
father had died, that her father's eyes fell on the table and a cat gobbled up the
two eyes. Louise felt that she had achieved revenge in her dream. Freud was
known for always keeping a journal of his own dreams. According to Freud,
dreams provided a clear insight into a person's unconscious wishes, and he
offered numerous examples to bolster his claim that dreams are, in fact, the
fulfillment of unconscious wishes. (Drapella, p. 21) In the case of Louise, I feel
that Sigmund Freud would have been pleased with Louise's literal insight into her
own dream. She did dissect her dream in a literal sense and it helped her to feel
she had gotten revenge and therefore felt relieved of the burden of her father not

Sigmund Freud & Carl Rogers regarding Louise Bourgeois

accepting her. Her father not accepting her not only took place in respect to his
disappointment in her lack of male genitalia, but in his blatant refusal to see her
as an artist. This was painful for Louise as well. Encompassing all aspects of who
Louise identified herself as, her father would not accept her.
Relating the two accounts of Louises father, according to Freud's theory, in
the Electra conflict occurs for girls and the Oedipus conflict occurs for boys.
These conflicts are eventually resolved through the process of identification with
the parent of the same sex, which leads to repression of incestuous desires for the
parent of the opposite sex. The boy wants to be like his father, the girl wants to
resemble her mother. Freud believed, however, that the identification process of
girls occurred later in life and that the Electra conflict was never fully resolved.
(p. 18) This makes sense since Louise is still trying to process her emotions
regarding her father. In Rogers view, the good life is a process, not a state of
being. It is a direction, not a destination.(p. 131) Louise discusses this very
notion in the documentary when she questions what did I want to do to be
useful? What I wanted was a unique journey, my own journey. If there is a map
of life, you start here, finish here, I chose to go left or right. I feel that Louise was
able to listen to herself, and make choices in her life by paying attention to her
organism. Rogers speaks of this in regards to his Optimistic View of Human
Nature, he states
I have little sympathy with the rather prevalent concept that man is basically
irrational, and that his impulses, if not controlled, will lead to destruction of others
and self. Mans behavior is exquisitely rational, moving with subtle and ordered

Sigmund Freud & Carl Rogers regarding Louise Bourgeois

complexity toward the goals his organism is endeavoring to achieve. The tragedy
for most of us is that our defenses keep us from being aware of this rationality, so
that consciously we are moving in one direction, while organismically we are
moving in another. (pg. 125) I think that Louise is driven in the direction she is
supposed to be and she listens to what is inside her.
I would now like to examine Louise from a different perspective, the
perspective of her as a counselor to herself. It occurred to me that she is relieving
her anxiety herself by working and making art. When she makes art, Louise
breaks down in her mind what she wants to express. In the 1993 exhibition The
Helping Hands, which is a series of sculptures that are in the shape of people
holding each others hands, it represents people who literally help and assist her.
She speaks about this in the documentary and answers the interviewers question
of, what does it represent, why did you make it? Louise answers (it shows) how
much I care about them, emotions (are) lived and is real, not made up. Louise
shares in the documentary that she has anxiety, feels her emotion, combines her
emotions, ideas and creativity with her drive to make art and be productive. While
she is creating art, she is considering her emotions and how to express precisely
what it is she wants to reveal through her creation. It is an amazing process she
goes through, as she immerses herself in the emotion. I believe that in this
process Louise works out a great deal of emotion and it is a coping method while
it is happening. She expressed in the documentary that work makes me feel
better, stronger.
Another way Louise acts as her own therapist is when she sets up mirrors in

Sigmund Freud & Carl Rogers regarding Louise Bourgeois

her displays of art. She uses this in two different projects to show us this idea. The
first one is in a collection that is displayed as a childs bedroom.. The person
viewing the art would be inclined to look in the mirror as they view the exhibition.
She discusses how the mirror is representing memories, and how memories can
be distorted in our minds. Louise asks the question are you accurate or are you
sloppy in your memories? Our memories can be distorted, your memory will be
very different form the other people. The other set of mirrors that Louise uses is
in the tower that is exhibited in I DO, I UNDO, I REDO One of the curators of the
exhibit climbed the tower and described her experience, she said that she walked
up the stairs slowly and the mirrors made her feel very self conscious. I feel that
Louise wanted people to look at themselves and ask who am I, and realize that
you are not an end to anything, you are a process. This is where Carl Rogers
would agree with her.
This leads me think about memories and how people constantly misrepresent
their own memories. Memories are made of an event or time, mixed with
emotions and feelings about it, and is perceived through the eyes of the person
remembering. That perception is completely different than a person standing
next to them at the time. From my own experience, I know that two children
growing up in the same household can remember the same incident differently.
One may remember it fondly and one may remember it as being a stressful time,
yet it was the same thing being remembered. Louise brings these questions to
viewers of her art with mirrors.
Carl Rogers mirrors or reflects a clients feelings so that they can look at what

Sigmund Freud & Carl Rogers regarding Louise Bourgeois

they are saying, and perhaps question the truth of how they really feel. Everything
a person communicates is based on feelings and perceptions, or how they feel
right now. Subjective reality.
When comparing Sigmund Freud and Carl Rogers concepts and applications, I
find that I look to Freud more for a big picture or understanding, although I feel
that his dream concepts make sense. I look to Carl Rogers to work with and use
the applications. I connect with the way Carl Rogers works with clients and feel
that is more my style and can picture myself using his applications. In this
particular case analysis, Louise could benefit from the use of both theories,
applying several of Freud and Rogers concepts to relate to her progress in life. I
find that all of the well known theorists are taught for the very reason that a
counselor could take components of the different concepts,and that would be
useful for any given complicated person. Humans and the mind are too
complicated for cookie cutter psychology. As Rogers would probably agree, we
are all a work in progress and so is psychology.

References
Drapela, V. J. (1995). A Review of Personality Theories. Springfield, Ill., U.S.A.: C.C.
Thomas.
Documentary, Louise Bourgeois The Spider, the Mistress & the Tangerine (2008)