Psychoanalysis at Science Museum

No, sorry, it’s not free therapy. It’s an exhibition. I’m sure you’re devastated.

I’ve recently had my memory tested about psychoanalysis and all things Freudian. I studied it at A-level along with everyone else who thought that A-level psychology would be interesting and useful.

The moment I finished the exams I promptly went and forgot it all I had learned. Then I read Jed Rubenfeld’s crime thriller The Interpretation of Murder, which I think the world read a few years ago when it came out. It’s full of Freud and his theories on the effectiveness of psychoanalysis.

So perhaps it was fate that I then happened to stumble across a current exhibition in the Science Museum. It is titled Psychoanalysis: The Unconscious in Everyday Life; a collection of various psychoanalysis paraphernalia, including Freud’s bits of Greek and Roman antiquities which he would have used in his consulting sessions, artwork inspired by various psychoanalytical studies and some extras from a case study by the famous psychoanalyst Melanie Klein.

Klein was one of the original patients of Ferenczi (who makes an appearance in The Interpretation of Murder, for those who have read it) and she got into it herself in the early 20th century.

This being the Science Museum, it’s a fairly interactive affair, too. The exhibition involves, for the visitor, working out hidden associations and unconscious meanings throughout the place, and showing how psychoanalysis is applied in everyday life. Showing how unconscious desires shape our lives, the exhibition also demonstrates how it has done so over time and is applicable throughout history.

I think the comprehensiveness of the normality of this is what appeals to me. Say ‘Freud’ and most people will wince a bit – no one wants to be reminded of his most radical and uncomfortable theories. But the fact is he did invent psychoanalysis and it did open up the world to the concept of mental wellbeing affecting one’s physical health, and as such he did do a lot of good.

While, you know, advocating the benefits of cocaine, and everything. Still, if you want to pioneer forward-thinking, you’re going to make a few dubious assertions en route.

Psychoanalysis: The Unconscious in Everyday Life is continuing until Saturday 2 April, 2011. This, you will be delighted to know, is one of the museum’s free exhibitions, so you can pop there on your lunch break or after work if you’re finishing a bit early and have a mosey round, getting in touch with the workings of your unconscious mind or just squirming over Freud’s freaky theories if you’re a bit more like me.

Oh, and The Interpretation of Murder is quite good if you fancy a book for a train journey.

Science Museum
Exhibition Road
South Kensington
SW7 2DD

Tel: 0870 870 4868