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This essay considers the theories of the unconscious as formulated by Sigmund

Freud, and then further developed by Jacques Lacan. It investigates how
psychoanalysis has been a fundamental basis for the understanding of visual
culture, and itspecifically addressesingthe field of photography.It examines the
key concepts of voyeurism/exhibitionism, the pleasure principle,drives, dreams
and repression as Freud presented them in his theories:, which are essential to   
 
Small change, but the
difference is that it's dangerous to - at this stage -
realizsinge the power of the image on our psyche. It also looks into the claim something is essential without having
formulation of the Lacanian mirror phase that elucidates how we come to proved it. My version only restates Freud's claim.
perceive ourselves as Ǯsubjectsǯ.

Furthermore, this research explores the techniques employed by artists, such as

Jeff Wall and Victor Burgin, to convey messages through their images, and how
spectators receive them; viewers are indeed affected by looking at these
photographs in a way that psychoanalytic theories enable us to comprehend. It 

 

I cut out this line for the same
reason as the section above; and because a lower
becomes clear thataims to clarify the ways in which photography is a language word count is never a bad thing.
that acquires meaning through processes of conscious and unconscious thought,
social and cultural convention;s and why it cannot be reduced to visual styles,
subject matter or authorial ambitions.

In The Interpretation of Dreams, Freud established the evidence of the existence

of the unconscious as a separated and hidden layer of our psyche, through the his
analysis of the dreams. He has argued, DzIt happens that certain material appears
in the dream-content which cannot be subsequently recognized, in the waking
state, as being part of oneǯs knowledge and experience. [ǥ] The dreamer is
therefore in the dark as to the source which the dream has tapped, and even is
tempted to believe in an independent productive activity activity on the part of
the dream, until, often long afterwards, a fresh episode restores the memory of
that former experience, which had been given up for lost, and so reveals the
source of the dream. One is therefore to admit that in the dream something was
known and remembered that cannot be remembered in the waking
state.dz(Freud, 1976, p.15)

Moreover, in The Unconscious (2005), he proceeds with sayingstates that it is 

 


I've never heard of this book,
and Freud certainly wasn't writing in 2005.
necessary to postulate assume the existence of the unconscious, as all the
information granted by consciousness is incomplete, Dzriddled with gapsdz. There
exist, equally in sick and healthy people, psychic acts we witness that can only be
explained if we assume the existence ofpresume other acts that we are
consciously unaware of.,and assuming so On this basis, he refers not only to
dreams and Ǯslipsǯ but also to ideas of unknown origin that we experience in our
daily life which are the result of hidden processes and workings taking place in 

 

Again, your job is to take his
our psyche. (p. 50)He would imply that Iit is then clear, therefore, that there are theories and apply them, not necessarily to claim
without evidence that they're gospel truth 
some certain obstacles barriers deviating hindering a proper investigation of our
own person selves; obstacles that prevent a complete self-knowledge.

These obstacles are the product of what he calls Ǯrepressionǯ. As Freud put it,
Dzrepression usually results when wishes, especially sexual ones, come into
conflict with a personǯs ethical or aesthetic values.dz (Spector, 1972, p.88) The
task process of repression is toitself involvesremove and keep unconscious
placing and detainingcertain desires, or Ǯdrivesǯ, within the realm of the
subconscious, from which they maythat continue to seek satisfaction, albeit in a
sphere of the mind from which we are precluded in a sphere of our mind
precluded to consciousness.IndeedIn fact, the impulse of a drive can experience a
resistance that put it out of actionthe impact of repression can be so powerful as
to temporarily - or even permanently - negate a drive all together. Freud has
stated that Dzrepression usually results when wishes, especially sexual ones, come
into conflict with a personǯs ethical or aesthetic values.dz (Spector, 1972,
p.88)Crucially, the end result either way is that central conflicts within our
personal identities are locked away in the only place we as subjects are unable to
access them.   

You had all the necessary
As a matter of fact, most of peopleǯs problems come from the fact that we are
never completely conscious about our tastes and ourselvesBased on this view, it
might be fair to argue that . Wwe never truly understand donǯt know fully who
we are. Society is governed by ideas of what is Ǯnormalǯ and Ǯnot normalǯ, which
quickly and it becomes 'oppressive' and Ǯtotalitarianǯ. Therefore, being
scrutinized by the tyrannical idea of Ǯnormalǯ, This pressure to conformforces us
to adaptwe tend to adapt to it:,and we renounce to comprehend which are our
real desiresrepress our true drives and natures to such a degree that we fail to
even be conscious of them.. We put these inclinations aside before they become
properly conscious.
information in this paragraph already, but lots of
the sentences would have been unclear to
someone who didn't already know a bit of Freud. I
also restructured it because the most important
element of repression (and therefore the bit you
should discuss first) is the purpose, followed by
the process; not the other way around. Finally,
markers use a system to award you points, so if
you can easily summarize at the end of each
paragraph your conclusion (in this case that
understanding the subconscious is essential in
understanding the self) then you'll have a clearer
essay, and easy marks.

As human beings, we are moved by a constant strive drive to gain pleasure

through the contentment of our needs,: the Ǯpleasure-principleǯ is what lead us,
governing the activity of the psychic apparatus.Inside our organisms a constant
force is manifesting, and it emanates the source of our drives,;which is a constant
stimulation that seeks to be removed. The only way to remove the state of
simulation is to gain the satisfaction of what drives itdrives;.tThe Ǯobjectǯ is that
through which this aim satisfaction can be achieved, and is also the most
inconstant aspect of drives: an apple for hunger, a warm body for lust. Indeed,
during the process of discharge the drive can be subjected to different
modifications, being its subject (the unconscious) and itǯs object two separated
entities. However, due to the disconnect between the subject (the unconscious)
and the object (a thing or action perceived by the conscious mind), the method of
satisfaction can mutate.

Freud presents the issue of voyeurism-exhibitionism as a Ǯreversalǯ of the object

of the drive. In this process, at tThe first stage of this process posits that Dzlooking
is an activity directed towards another objectdz,.thenThe next stage is
Dzrelinquishing the object, turning the voyeuristic drive towards a part of oneǯs
body and, with this, reversal into passivity and the setting up of a new aim Ȃ to
be looked atdz.is the second passage that leads to tThe last final stage that is Dzthe
introduction of a new subject to whom one displays oneself in order to be looked
at.dz (Freud, 2005, p.23)Essentially, Freud suggests that rather than pursuing our
own drives and objects, we end up allowing ourselves to be the method through
which other subjects satisfy their own.   

This is just me summing up in
our words what Freud has said to show we
understand it.
The opposed and interrelated concepts of voyeurism and exhibitionism are
strongly connected with the practice of photography. Indeed the camera can be
considered as a medium through which the photographer can satisfy the his
desire to look at people from a secure position., while the subject portrayed
isunaware of being watched. On the other hand, in the same way as in the   

They're not always unaware,
right?
psychic reversal,This relationship is reversed when in a self-portrait the artist
changes his object of interest and directs the eye of the camera towards his own
body, showing it to the spectator. This is an example of how theories of the
unconscious have helped us elaborating meanings and understanding
mechanisms of photography.   

This sounds a little bit like
you're saying you've provided examples of these
theories being applied, which you don't do until
Spector (1972) has reported Freudǯs assertion that psychoanalysis Dzprovides later on. That's not a problem, but removing this
information about the creative processdz (p.93). He continues sayingsuggests that sentence just makes it clear that you're
continuing to build on Freud's theories as you
in Freudǯs view the artist has the capacity to lead spectators to the satisfaction of move into Lacan.
the Dzsame unconscious wishful impulsesdz, and he is able to do so through his
fantasy, and thanks to the access heǯs he hasgot to repressed material
unavailable to others.(p.104)

Moreover, Sturken and Cartwright (2001) have stated, Dzof all contemporary
theories that can help us understand how viewers make meaning, psychoanalytic
theory has addressed most directly the pleasure we derive from images, and the
relationship between our desires and our visual world. We can have intense
relationships with images precisely because of the power they have both to give
us pleasure and to allow us to articulate our desires through looking.dz (p.72-73)

In the late twentieth century, another psychoanalyst,Jacques Lacan, reviewed

and developed Freudǯs theories of the unconscious, placing great deal of interest
on the practice of looking, and introducing the concept of the so called Ǯmirror
phaseǯ.Lacan proposes that it is during the childhood that a human being starts
to define his ego in thethrough his experience of looking at his own image
reflected in the mirror.

In this act of recognition of his own image, the child plays with movements and
senses the existence of his body as a separatedseparate entity from the
environment that surrounds him or from another body. Lacan (1977) asserts
that this is Dzan essential stage of the act of intelligencedz and that the Dzassumption
of his specular image by the child exhibits in an exemplary situation the symbolic
matrix in which the I is precipitated in a primordial form, before it is objectified
in the dialectic of identification with the other, and before the language restores
to it its function as subject.dz (p.1-2)

It is thought that, at this stage,Lacan suggested that children fantasize about their
image, perceiving it both as their own and as something different on which they
can exert power; the figure in the mirror comes to be, at the same time, their
reflection and an idealized self. About the mirror phaseSturken and Cartwright
(2001) have suggested, DzIt is important to see how it helps ups to understand the
very question of how we become subjects. It can provide a useful framework to
understand the investment of tremendous power that viewers place in images,
and the reason why we can so easily read images as kind of ideal.dz (p.75)

In our everyday life, it is evident how we tend to project ourselves onto the
idealized images of men and women that we seein the glossy pages of magazines,
as if losing our egos we would like to identify with them, owning their
appearance. Especially in the field of advertisement there have been, and there
always are, large studies on the way the unconscious of spectators works, on
their desires, on the models they would like to replicate, so that it is possible to
sell them their ideal; that illusion of coherence and perfection of body that the
infant experimentsed with in the mirror phase is therefore replicated in the
idealized image that the subject constantly seeks to own in his adulthood.

An important concept, in questions of images and desires, has to be introduced

that is Ǯthe gazeǯ, a term used by Lacan to describe the relationships of
looking.Lacan (2004) has stated DzI see myself only from one point, but in my
existence I am looked at from all sides,.dz (p.72), and this proposition establishes
how human beings live in a world that is Dzall-seeingdz, and they are constantly
being looked at from a countless number of outside points of view. He continues
his reasoning,asserting that the gaze occurs as a peculiar circumstance, symbolic
of what we see within our field of vision, in the form of a kind of Dzthrust of our
experiencedz. He describes the gaze as something that, in our visual relationship
with to things outside ourselves, Dzslips, passes, is transmitted, from stage to
stage, and is always to some degree eluded in itdz. (p.73) The gaze is
representative of the fact that whenever we are looking at an object - be it a
mirror, a photo or another person - that object may be a subject objectifying us
by staring straight back.

Lacan often usedHans Holbeinieronymus Bosch'sTheAmbassadorsConjurer to j
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expound this concept: it is a painting which can be safely viewed by the subject j
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as voyeur, but which when viewed from a certain angle reveals a skull staring
back at the subject, rendering them object. This way it seems Holbein want to
suggest us that there is always another gaze; the gaze of the ǮOtherǯ. Indeed, there
will be always another position from which things make sense.

Moreover, Lacan (2004)has pointed out wrote more on the illusion of

consciousness that the DzI see myself seeing myselfdz produces. ; iIt cannot be
compared to the Cartesian Dzcogitodz since while the visual mental faculty exists
within our own minds, we perceive objects as if they are external to us: we
project our image onto the world.the perception of seeing is not situated inside
the subject, but on the object that it detects.It appears clear that we needThis
realisation seems to necessitate an external subject that in turn can determine
identify us as subjects.Therefore, weWe need first to be the object of someone
elseǯs gaze. Indeed, in his speculation about on the gazeLacanhe has suggested
that, DzIn the scopic relation, the object on which depends the phfantasy from
which the subject is suspended in an essential vacillation is the gaze [ǥ] From
the moment that this gaze appears, the subject tries to adapt himself to it [ǥ]
Furthermore, of all objects in which the subject may recognize his dependence in
the register of desire, the gaze is specified as unapprehensible.dz (p.83)
DzOf course what most often manifests a look is the convergence of two ocular
globes in my direction. But the look will be given just as well on occasion when
there is a rustling of branches, or the sound of a footstep followed by silence, or
the slight opening of a shutter, or a light movement of a curtain.dz ÿ


 

In the Four jundamental Concepts of Psycho-Analysis, Lacanhas clarified the

description of the gaze as formulated by Jean Paul Sartre in Being and
Nothingness, DzThe gaze sees itself. [ǥ] The gaze I encounter is, not a seen gaze,
but a gaze imagined by me in the field of the Other.dz(Lacan, 2004, p.84) As a
matter of fact, the term gaze designates a particular type of look, which is
structured in a way that implies the intervention of social factors such as
conventions, networks, authorities and power structures. We are always either
the subjects that give the gaze or the objects of someone elseǯs gaze; one thing is
certain, a gaze is by nature never neutral, and this is the reason why it differs
from a generic look.The gaze is Dzthe presence of others as such.dz (Lacan, 2004,
p.84)

The concept of the gaze has played a fundamental role in the development of
inquiries within visual culture, both in film studies and art history. Sturken and
Cartwright (2001) have also noticed how this concept, in still images has been
relevant to discern all the diverse looks that images imply.They trace the
conventionsof paintingin the classic Western tradition, describing the way in
which women were depicted, always as objects of the male gaze, because of the
primacy of men as audience.Often, women were represented with their bodyies
turned towards the spectators, but with their heads turned to a mirror. This
convention can be understood if we consider that Dzone of the primary elements
of the concept of the gaze is a kind of split that viewers experience in looking at
imagesdz that is, in this specific case, Dzthe split that results from being
simultaneously the surveyor and the surveyed, in looking at oneself through the
implied gaze of the others.dz (p. 81)

The mirror, as Paul Klee (1961) has stated Dzshows the opposite of the real, and it 

 

You start providing examples
reflects the image of ourselves as we appear to others. [ǥ] The mirror translates
the world into an image but an image that changes to reflect the subjectǯs
movement.dz (p.54). Indeed, it is an object that has been frequently used in both
painting and photography to determine an active relationship between the
viewer and the world depicted. In the Jeff Wallǯs photograph, Picture for Women,
we apprehend a scene as a reflection in a mirror. This picture features as a
source of inspiration EdouardManetǯs painting Un Bar aux jolies-Bergere, and is
a clever reworking of it, since the viewers are confronted with a sort of Dzoptical
puzzledz in which, although we can sense the presence of a big mirror, nothing
within the frame is doubled, and we can see everything just once.
of psychoanalytical theory being applied to art
interpretation here, which is great. In addition to
repeating the thoughts of other critics, could you
also include a sentence or so explaining you
personal application of the theories? Just a little
evaluation might win you some decent marks:
"Critic X says this, but Critic Y says this, and I
think Critic Y has the more useful perspective
becauseǥ"

David Campany (2007) has reported considered the text that was accompanying
the picture in a Tate Modern retrospective of the artist in which, as he has
argued, there are Dzneatly condensed many of the existing writings about Picture
for Women.:DzIn Manetǯs painting, a barmaid gazes out of frame, observed by a
shadowy male figure. The whole scene appears to be reflected in the mirror
behind the bar, creating a complex web of viewpoints. Wall borrows the internal
structure of the painting, and motifs such as the light bulbs that give it spatial
depth. The figures are similarly reflected in a mirror, and the woman has the
absorbed gaze and posture of Manetǯs barmaid, while the man is the artist
himself. Though issues of the male gaze, particularly the power relationship
between male artist and female model, and the viewerǯs role as onlooker, are
implicit in Manetǯs painting, Wall updates the theme by positioning the camera at
the centre of the work, so that it captures the act of making the image (the scene
reflected in the mirror) and, at the same time, looks straight out at us.dz (p.13)

The composition is perfectly arranged in a play of gazes where the

predominance of the male gaze dissolves together with stereotypical hierarchies
of gender roles. The man on the right side is gazing coyly at the mirror reflection
of the woman,the woman on the left side seems to be looking straight at the
viewer but she is actually staring back at him who in fact looks as if caught by
surpriseas if caught in the act. The camera between themis looking at itself in the
mirror, framing the scene and recording the controversial relation of their
reciprocal gazes.

Moreover,Klee (1961) has noted, DzModel and photographer become both figures
in the picture and simultaneously its viewers through the intercession of the
mirrordz, and that the camera Dzis the viewerǯs counterpart in the scene.dz (p.48) To
conclude, he has suggested that the clear transparency of the mirror unveils
viewerǯs and artist voyeurism, andplaying with the space in a game of illusionism
between flatness and depth, he openly shows the Ǯbehind the sceneǯ usually
invisible on the plane surface of photographs.And hHe adds, DzEverything is
explicit in this image, its entire procedure is avowed, nothing is concealed and its
total visibility is blinding.dz (p.49)

In the series of four diptychs made by Victor Burgin, called šoo, there is an image
that is particularly interesting. There is shown a woman inside a strip club in
Berlin, dancing on a round revolving table, in front of a wide mirror. She is being
looking looked at by an audience of most probably male spectators, through
peepholes placed all around the three walls of the room. The point of view from
which this picture has been taken is clearly a voyeuristic one; the stripper is
unaware of who is watching her, whereas the public, presumably along the
photographer himself,is are safely hidden behind the dark windows.

On the right side of the image there is a text saying:DzThe plan is circular: at the
periphery, an anular building; at the centre a tower pierced with many windows.
The building consists of cells; each has two windows: one in the outer wall
allows daylight to pass into it; another in the inner wall looks onto the tower, or
rather is looked upon by the tower, for the windows of the tower are dark and
the occupants of the cell cannot know who watches, or if anyone watches.dz This
is the description of the PenitentiaryPanopticon, which is an architectural plan
for a prison ideated in the nineteenth century by Jeremy Bentham and described
by Michel FoucaultinDiscipline& Punish, The birth of The Prison.

The text is relatedto the image with sharp irony, in fact, as David Campany
(2007) has noted, DzThe spatial/optical order laid out in the text is the inverse of
the one we see in Burginǯs photograph. [ǥ] Even so the situations they describe
are part of the same Ǯscopic regimeǯ, a regime that is at once diagrammatic,
architectural and rooted in the hegemonic orders of power and social
subjectivity.dz (p. 20)

Of course, discussing theories on how the unconscious mind affects our

understanding of photography does not only include that photography intended
for 'artistic' purposes. The work of Michel Foucault is useful to in understanding
how the concept of the gaze is tightly connected, not only with matters of
interpersonal relationships between singular subjects, but also, on a broader
scale, with social and power issues. He explores the way in which Ǯinstitutional
gazesǯ act by normalizing people's behaviour through the exertion of an invisible
power, resulting in Freud's repression. In his theories he describes systems
working as Ǯmachines of the gazeǯ; there is no need to for physical threats or
body punishment because of the presence of an imagined superior gaze that
people internalize as the guardian of their conduct.

Moreover, Sturken and Cartwright (2001) have suggested that since its
invention, photography has been always been used by bureaucratic institutions
as an integral and fundamental tool in the regulation of social behaviour. Its rise,
in fact, coincided with the rise of the modern political state.DzThe versatility of the
photographic image thus spawned a broad array of image-making activities for
the purpose of surveillance, regulation and categorization.dz (p. 95)

With these things in mind, it seems quite reasonable that a true understanding of
ourselves might be markedly obscured by the reactions of our unconscious
minds to the perceived threats of social stigma and institutional oppression.
Without the tools to look directly inward at the one part of ourselves that must
always be off limits, photography - and a psychoanalytical framework through
which to interpret it - presents an opportunity to escape the vicious circle: to
both put our own selves on show as objects for the interest of others; and to
observe others in such a way as to make us intimately aware of our own selves.

We can now begin to see how considerable is the power of images within human
society and how they have been always play a central role in affecting and
shaping our mind. It is therefore expressed the necessity of the support that
theories of the unconscious have given in clarifying the hidden and subtle
mechanism of making and perceiving photography.

BIBLIOGRAPHY:

- Campany D., (2007). A theoretical diagram in an empty classroom: Jeff Wallǯs

Picture for Women. Ñxford Art Journal. 30 January. 7-25.

- FreudS., (1976). The Interpretation of Dreams. 3rd Edition. ß
  Hayes
Barton Press

- FreudS., (2005). The Unconscious.London: Penguin Books Ltd

- Klee P., (1961). The Thinking Eye. London: Lund Humphries.

- Lacan J., (1977). Ecrits. London: Tavistock Publications Limited

- Lacan J., (2004). The jour jundamental Concepts of Psycho-Analysis. London: H.

Karnac (Books) Ltd
-
  ÿ Ä


  ß 

- SpectorJack J., (1975). The Aesthetic of jreud: A Study in Psychoanalysis and art.
New York: Praeger Publishers.

- SturkenM.,CartwrightL., (2001). Practices of Looking: an Introduction to Visual

Culture. New York: Oxford University Press Inc.