Leonardo da Vinci: A Psychosexual Study of an Infantile ReminiscenceFreud, Sigmund
Science
Leonardo da Vinci: A Psychosexual Study of an Infantile Reminiscence
Freud, Sigmund
Freud, Sigmund, 1856-1939 -- Views on art; Leonardo, da Vinci, 1452-1519; Painters -- Italy -- Biography; Psychoanalysis -- Case studies
Our feeling that the smile of Monna Lisa del Gioconda awakened in the
man the memory of the mother of his first years of childhood would thus
be confirmed from another work of Leonardo. Following the production of
Monna Lisa, Italian artists depicted in Madonnas and prominent ladies
the humble dipping of the head and the peculiar blissful smile of the
poor peasant girl Caterina, who brought to the world the noble son who
was destined to paint, investigate, and suffer.
When Leonardo succeeded in reproducing in the face of Monna Lisa the
double sense comprised in this smile, namely, the promise of unlimited
tenderness, and sinister threat (in the words of Pater), he remained
true even in this to the content of his earliest reminiscence. For the
love of the mother became his destiny, it determined his fate and the
privations which were in store for him. The impetuosity of the caressing
to which the vulture phantasy points was only too natural. The poor
forsaken mother had to give vent through mother's love to all her
memories of love enjoyed as well as to all her yearnings for more
affection; she was forced to it, not only in order to compensate herself
for not having a husband, but also the child for not having a father who
wanted to love it. In the manner of all ungratified mothers she thus
took her little son in place of her husband, and robbed him of a part of
his virility by the too early maturing of his eroticism. The love of the
mother for the suckling whom she nourishes and cares for is something
far deeper reaching than her later affection for the growing child. It
is of the nature of a fully gratified love affair, which fulfills not
only all the psychic wishes but also all physical needs, and when it
represents one of the forms of happiness attainable by man it is due, in
no little measure, to the possibility of gratifying without reproach
also wish feelings which were long repressed and designated as
perverse.[63] Even in the happiest recent marriage the father feels that
his child, especially the little boy has become his rival, and this
gives origin to an antagonism against the favorite one which is deeply
rooted in the unconscious.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account