Photography and the Optical Unconscious
Shawn Michelle Smith is Professor of Visual and Critical Studies at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago and the author of
Sharon Sliwinski is Associate Professor of Information and Media Studies at the University of Western Ontario and author of
Shawn Michelle Smith is Professor of Visual and Critical Studies at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago and the author of
Sharon Sliwinski is Associate Professor of Information and Media Studies at the University of Western Ontario and author of
The silent erotic comedy of Johann Schwarzer’s Saturn films (1906–1911) visualized topics such as hypnosis, medical examination, harem scenes, slave markets, and surgery. Each imaginary erotic situation served as a mise-en-scéne for scopic desire and fulfillment. Almost as though hiding in plain sight, Viennese erotic photography and cinema were pertinent to the culture in which Freudian psychoanalysis originated and developed. Protagonists in the early history of psychoanalysis such as Sigmund Freud, Josef Breuer, and Bertha Pappenheim (“Anna O.”) are discussed here with relation to the erotic photography and films of their time.
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