Starting Oct. 3 and continuing through Dec. 9, the Field Museum will host a compelling exhibition about psychoanalyst Sigmund Freud’s life and key ideas, and their effect upon the 20th century.
The exhibition, “Sigmund Freud: Conflict and Culture,” features vintage photographs, prints and manuscripts. Also displayed are home movies of Freud, and objects from his study and consulting room—including materials from his desk, a reproduction of the chair in which he sat when listening to patients, a model of his consulting couch covered with a rug that belonged to Freud, and pieces from his own collection of antiques. Selected film and television clips and materials from newspapers, magazines and comic books are interwoven throughout the exhibition to highlight the pervasive influence of psychoanalysis on popular culture.
The exhibition is organized into three sections, beginning in late 19th century Vienna, where Freud’s early professional development occurred. Section two examines key psychoanalytic concepts and how Freud used them in some of his most famous cases. The final section focuses on the diffusion of psychoanalytic ideas, and Freud’s speculations about the origins of society, the social functions of religion and art, and the way in which crises reveal fundamental aspects of human nature.
“Many people know of Freud, but they have a rather vague idea about the man he was and the ideas he developed. The exhibition will help flesh out Freud both as a person and as one of the most influential thinkers of the past century,” said Ariel Orlov, the Field Museum’s project coordinator for the exhibition.
Although Freud’s ideas have had a huge impact, they have also inspired sustained controversy and intense debate. As psychoanalysis rapidly spread within medicine and to other forms of therapy, the social sciences, art, literature and popular culture, the criticisms of Freud’s ideas and his practices kept pace. Throughout the exhibition, words and images—often contentious, sometimes humorous—attest to Freud’s lasting influence and the controversy his ideas continue to generate.
To illustrate how Freud’s ideas have become absorbed into modern culture, the exhibition features video clips from a wide variety of movies and television shows such as “Rosemary’s Baby,” “Psycho,” “The Three Faces of Eve,” “Sex and the Single Girl,” Bringing Up Baby,” “What About Bob?,” “Ordinary People,” “The Bob Newhart Show,” “The Simpsons,” “Murphy Brown,” “Get Smart,” and “The Flintstones.”
“These video clips really show how ingrained Freud’s ideas have become in our vocabulary and in the ways we think about our own actions and those of other people,” explained Orlov.
The exhibition is free with basic admission. Basic admission to the museum is $8 for adults and $4 for children ages three to 11, seniors, and students with ID. Basic admission is free on Wednesdays. The Field Museum is open daily from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.
The Field Museum is located at 1400 S. Lake Shore Dr. For general museum information, call (312) 922-9410 or (312) 341-9299 TDD. Visit the Field Museum’s Web site at www.fieldmuseum.org.
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