~Psychoanalysis: The Unconscious in Everyday Life~

The Science Museum is holding a special exhibition exploring the workings of the unconscious mind through a range of modern and historical objects and contemporary artworks. This exhibition brings some of its unexpected manifestations to light through historical and contemporary artefacts. The huge range of objects struck me as typical of the strange, mish-mash of methods and ideologies which have been put into practise under the umbrella 'psychoanalysis' (often to the detriment of patients).  It is well worth a visit, but here are a few highlights from the exhibition.



(1292-1190 BC) Part of Freud's collection of antiquities. It is the lid of a human-shaped Egyptian coffin and alludes to the so called 'death drive', the instinct Freud described as a compulsion to self- destruct.



A selection from Margaret Lowenfelds collection of toys. Current brain research has confirmed the relevance of visual and auditory stimuli in the formation of memories, particularly of traumatic memories characterised by strong visual features.

Mona Hatoum, Hair Necklace (1995). Hatoum’s work evokes motifs related to the body, nostalgia and memory. In the 19th century hair was sometimes used in pendants, lockets and chains. The intimate associations of these objects are translated in Hatoum’s contemporary version in which the material – both delicate and binding – denotes attachment and loss, pointing to the unsettling boundaries of fetishism and anxiety

Open until 02 April 2011