(Dongxi asks) The emerald screen and the statue of Athena, how did the Eastern and Western civilizations meet in Freud's "Dream Interpretation Space"?
China News Agency, Beijing, May 17th, Question: Jade Interstitial Screen and Athena Statue, How do Eastern and Western Civilizations Meet in Freud's "Dream Interpretation Space"?
Author Liu Xintian Haoxuezi
20 Mansfield Gardens, London, is a detached three-storey red brick building, which was the last residence of Sigmund Freud, the founder of psychoanalysis, in his later years.
When Nazi Germany annexed Austria in 1938, Freud left Vienna, where he studied, worked and lived for nearly 60 years, and settled in this elegant cottage in Mansfield.
Today, it has become the Freud Museum, and every corner retains the original style and layout, showing the real life of Freud before his death.
Walking into the study, the emerald jade screen placed in the middle of his desk is particularly intriguing - in the middle is the pattern of "shou", and on both sides are the intertwining patterns on the dragon's mouth.
This jade screen is one of two items that Freud specially commissioned a friend to secretly transport from his former residence in Austria to London after he escaped the Nazi persecution.
Freud was an avid collector, mainly collecting antiquities from ancient Egypt, Greece and Rome, but in his later years he became more and more keen on collecting Chinese antiques.
When did Freud start collecting Chinese antiques?
How did his interest in Chinese culture influence the construction of psychological and psychoanalytic concepts?
Why can traditional Chinese culture resonate with psychoanalytic thinking?
The Freud Museum's ongoing "Freud and China" exhibition showcases the founder of the psychoanalytic school's relationship with Chinese culture, history and art through the collection of Chinese antiques and books during his lifetime.
"Freud and China" exhibition.
Photo by China News Agency Fatian Haoxuezi
Although the Chinese collection is small, it is cherished by Freud
As a collector, Freud had collections from Greece, Rome and Egypt, but this emerald insert was closer to him than any other antiquities in the study.
"In a critical moment, Freud could only entrust his close friend Princess Mary Bonamar to take two collections from the apartment, one is a small ancient Roman bronze Athena, and the other is an emerald screen. They are hidden in the Po Princess Nama's handbag was not discovered by the Nazi guards who were guarding Freud's residence at that time." Craig Kruger, the curator of the exhibition "Freud and China" and emeritus professor of art history at Oxford University Clunas) pointed out that Athena is one of Freud's most beloved objects, representing wisdom, knowledge and rational power.
"The bronze statue of Athena was collected by Freud in the early days, and the emerald screen was his later collection. The two collections spanned a considerable time dimension and represented two different human civilizations." Say.
Emerald interstitial from Freud's collection.
Photo by China News Agency Fatian Haoxuezi
In addition to this emerald screen, Freud also collected imitation Tang ladies figurines, white marble Buddha heads, Qing Dynasty desktop screens and lacquer Taoist priests. He also gave a gold and jade brooch as a birthday present to his daughter Anna.
Although Freud never visited China, he developed a keen interest in this ancient land and civilization.
"From Freud's past letters, we know that a key mentor in his career was the French psychologist Jean-Martin Charcot." Kruger pointed out that when Freud went to Paris, France to study with him , Schalco had an Asian collection, the first sign of interest in Asian objects in Freud's lifetime.
After the First World War, European society was filled with disappointment with Western rationalism and materialism, East Asia was seen as "an alternative", and European scholars gradually awakened their interest in China.
"The person who had the insight, wisdom and ideological confrontation with Freud, and who was very interested in Chinese ideological philosophy was Carl Jung." Keriger said that the two were once the closest friends and collaborators. Despite the ideological parting ways, there is no more dialogue.
Carol Seigel, director of the Freud Museum, pointed out that so far, there has been little research on Freud's fascination with China, and little discussion of why Chinese antiquities were collected at the end of his life. stage is so important.
The exhibition "Freud and China" hopes to change this situation, with the study of Freud's collection of Chinese art and artifacts, to explore the relationship between Freud and China, and psychoanalysis in Chinese history and contemporary China meaning.
There are similarities between Chinese and the visual representation of dreams
For Freud, archaeology and collection of antiques were inseparable from psychoanalysis, and in his book The Interpretation of Dreams, he mentioned that "the old and stained gods help me".
Freud's collection of antiques, including his beloved Chinese collection, played an important role in inspiring his academic thinking and inspiring his creations.
His desk is full of collections from Egypt, Greece, and Rome, as well as many ancient glassware and fragments.
Segel said: "Patients who have been treated by him often lament that they have entered an archaeologist's study, or a museum full of treasures, rather than a doctor's clinic." Freud liked to compare psychoanalysis to psychoanalysis. Do archaeology and call yourself a "psychoarchaeologist", because both need to dig deep and dig deep.
Freud's desk.
Photo by China News Agency Fatian Haoxuezi
During this process, the emerald jade screen with the character "Shou" placed in the center of the desk often entered his eyes.
It is said that Freud often sat at his desk and stared at it, falling into meditation and contemplation, and he even used Chinese linguistics in his "dream analysis" research.
"He believes that there are similarities between Chinese and the visual representation of dreams. Chinese needs to be understood by context, just like dreams also need to be interpreted in conjunction with specific situations and personal experiences." Kruger said, although Freud's judgment is based on a misunderstanding of the Chinese language, but does reflect his attempt to use Chinese culture to articulate his main psychoanalytic theory - the interpretation of dreams.
Freud's apartment in Vienna was divided into two spaces - the work space (i.e. the consulting room for research, writing and treatment of patients) and the living space (the room where the family lived).
In particular, Kruger pointed out that the collections from China and around the world are not everywhere in the apartment, but are completely confined to the work space, and it can be said that "they are part of Freud's work, not part of life".
Exploring the Chinese dimension of Freud's collection allows one to examine Freud's intersection with Chinese culture and the impact of that intersection on his thinking and work environment.
"If we miss Freud's interest in China, we are missing an important part of his life," Kruger said.
Does Chinese traditional culture contain spiritual dynamic thinking?
The psychoanalytic school founded by Freud is not only a set of theories and methods for psychological counseling and therapy, but also written into the history of Western philosophy and literature as a philosophical thought and literary theory.
Psychoanalytic attitude and ancient Chinese culture have obvious identity and compatible ancient temperament in the extension and disintegration of linear time category, traditional Confucian world outlook, and dialectical thinking structure.
Peter Loewenberg, former chairman of the China Committee of the International Psychoanalytic Association (IPA) and a board member, pointed out that natural science in the pre-quantum age envisioned time as a regular linear structure composed of discrete quantifiable units. Form, complete functional operation requirements in scientific analysis and in business, society and daily life.
The traditional Chinese time is not linear, but the time of morality and religion, which will reflect on the glory of the past, which is highly related to the "system unconscious process that does not involve time and does not change with the passage of time" in psychoanalysis. resonance.
The traditional Chinese outlook on life is also deeply synchronized with the moral values of psychoanalysis.
"The Doctrine of the Mean" says that "a gentleman cannot fail to cultivate his body", and "Mencius: Dedicated to the Heart" also emphasizes "a gentleman's guard, cultivate his body, and the world will be at peace".
Confucian self-cultivation thought goes beyond the moral spirit of individual life to achieve self-discipline, prompting people to observe and realize themselves more deeply from the characteristics of life.
Freud also paid attention to the cultivation of self-cultivation in the diagnostic model of psychoanalysis, understanding the symbols and signals of the body under the surface and the surface, and exerting the transforming function of unconscious knowledge on the individual.
At the same time, Taoism sees life as a balance of opposites such as "yin and yang", "good and evil", and psychoanalytic object relations theory also assumes that people have both good and bad internal objects, and our lives are in tension between them shock.
People practice Tai Chi in the morning light.
Photo by Zhang Yongxin issued by China News Agency
The interest in psychoanalytic teaching and clinical practice in contemporary China is no coincidence.
In Loewenberg's view, it reflects the subtle perception of time in traditional Chinese culture, Confucian realism, Taoist dualistic dialectics, and deep emotional exploration in the same vein.
When the orthodox psychoanalytic training appeared in China, the Chinese cultural tradition had already prepared a fertile land for it, containing a large number of self-contained psychodynamic thinking.
Based on the ancient and rich intellectual heritage, China can integrate its own unique temperament, style, signs and characteristics with Western schools and teachings of psychoanalysis, and eventually develop a form of "Chinese psychoanalysis".
(Finish)
Interviewee Profile:
Photo by China News Agency Fatian Haoxuezi
Kruger, an important contemporary scholar on the history of Chinese material civilization, is currently an emeritus professor of art history at the University of Oxford, UK.
He was a senior researcher and curator of the China Department of the Victoria and Albert Museum in London for 15 years. Since 1994, he has taught at the Department of Art History at the University of Sussex and the School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London.
In 2006, he was nominated as a Fellow of the British Academy of Humanities and Social Sciences for his outstanding achievements and contributions in the field of Chinese culture and art history research.
Carol Segel, director of the Freud Museum.
A historian, he has worked in cultural venues such as the Jewish Museum, London Museum, Hampstead Museum for over 20 years.
Served at the Freud Museum since 2009.