The Paranoid Critical Method

Andre Masson, Automatic Drawing, 1924

The Surrealism movement is a unique intersection of fine art and psychology. Originally influenced by Freud, artists of the movement attempted to tap into and materialize the unconscious, to push past the real and portray the surreal (Gordan, 230). Surrealist works held equal value as both pieces of art and incites to the human mind, “surrealist works are not important as poems, as pictures, as objects, but as being the residue left when we have strip down our souls to the bare framework of the unconscious which is beneath all our selves and from which we never escape” (Gauss, 39). But the question was: how does one discover the surreal? The consensus among artists is that one must free the self from the rational and release any resemblance of rational control (Gauss, 39). However, there are differing opinions in how to do so. The surrealist’s proposed two methods of surrealist creation. The first was the passive method of automatism. This method stemmed from Andre Breton’s automatic writing and dream experiments, which he began in 1919 (Gordon, 234).  The early Surrealists methods were forms of pure psychic automatism, such as Masson’s Automatic Drawing. The method of automatism as the most pure way to express the real process of thought was challenged by Salvador Dali in the 1930’s through his counter theory of paranoia-criticism (Harris, 727). This split in methods and underlying ideas is the basis for Breton’s renowned, Second Surrealists Manifestos.

Automatism is known as the passive phase of Surrealism, whereas paranoia-criticism, or paranoiac-critical, is known as the active method. With the active method, Dali achieves the symptoms of paranoia through simulation of various mental diseases and then utilizes this altered state of mind to create his unconscious images (Gordon, 235). Dali believed this method was the most pure and accurate way to tap into the unconscious. In his mind, the active process would trump automatism as the primary method of Surrealists because, “…it was the systematic character of paranoia, the way in which it was itself an interpretation of reality, rather than subject to interpretation, that made it superior to automatism and dream accounts that were all too subject to rationalization after the fact, and thus recuperation” (Harris, 731). Dali believed the reality one interprets in a paranoid state of mind is a pure representation of their unconscious; it was not subject to rationalization and thus freed ones mind from rational control to reach the surreal.

Salvador Dali, Le grand paranoiaque, 1936

            Dali believed the whole ambition of the artists was to “materialize the images of concrete irrationality”. To achieve this ambition he painted very realistically. He believed that our unconscious vision was comprised of unrealistic visions of reality and therefore needed to be depicted accurately; he “…recorded the interior model as faithfully and as clearly as any realist or academic painter would copy his exterior model” (Gauss, 41). For example, when you dream, your dreams look like reality; the scenarios may not be realistic but the images are derived from everyday life. That is precisely why Dali believed the unconscious should be realistically represented, since it derives from the conscious.

           In addition to painting images realistically, Dali also employed the tactic of double images. He believed the ability to portray and see a double image epitomized the paranoiac. He argued that the work paranoia is able to perform on already existing images is the proof of its active character and opposed the invention of new images in the passive, automatic method (Harris, 732). Many of Dali’s paintings contain double images, including his famous Visage Paranoiaque, Dormeuse, cheval, lion invisibles, and Le grand paranoiaque. 

The multiple interpretations present in these images are a result of ones paranoia. Dali makes sure that no single reading dominates; he creates “…a multiple image which can never settle into a single interpretation” (Harris, 734); this to Dali is a pictorial representation of the unconscious. Although some scholars argue that there can be no such thing as an unconscious painting since it is so planned out and formulated, Dali argues that such elements as double-images are directly tapping into the unconscious.

Salvador Dali, Visage Paranoiaque, 1935

Salvador Dali, Dormeuse, cheval, lion invisibles, 1930

            Although surrealists may argue in favor of a certain artistic method, the aim of both the passive and active methods is the same. They both try to deliberately tap into the unconscious, which the Surrealists consider to be “the prime source of artistic inspiration” (Gordon, 230). The Surrealist movement is a manifestation of the self-reflective questions that have plagued, and continue to puzzle humankind. We ask: what is really going on inside our minds? Scholars in all fields from psychology and neurobiology to sociologists and artists tackle this question; everyone believes they have the closest thing to the answer. Dali was a victim to this conceited pattern and believed his paranoid critical method was the true way to tap into the unconscious, the prime source of artistic expression. Whether he was correct in his theory or not, he created works that resonated with people around the world and fueled an artists movement that renounced the previous norms of aesthetics and morals.

Works Cited

Gauss, Charles E. "The Theoretical Backgrounds of Surrealism." The Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism 2.8 (1943): 37-44. JSTOR. Web. 15 Nov. 2012. <http://www.students.sbc.edu/evans06/Gauss%20reading.pdf>.

Gordan, Donald A. "Experimental Psychology and Modern Painting." The Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism 9.3 (1951): 227-43. Wiley-Blackwell. JSTOR. Web. 15 Nov. 2012. <http://www.jstor.org/stable/425884 .>.

Harris, Steven. "Beware of Domestic Objects: Vocation and Equivocation in 1936." Art History 24.5 (2001): 725-57. Wiley. Web. 15 Nov. 2012. <http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/store/10.1111/1467-8365.00293/asset/1467-8365.00293.pdf?v=1&t=ha2w6ebt&s=c717d060f1d8e7f2100c7ea2771882f3aebe5cb8>.