Freud Dreams of Rome

An exhibition of 11 Prints
 by Sharon Kivland
(from Freud on Holiday)

“Thought is after all nothing but a substitute for a hallucinatory wish…”

Sharon Kivland’s prints above the stairwell at the Freud Museum show us a Rome we have never seen before. Or one we never consciously recognized. These are views of the city that any tourist might see - but she has captured them emptied of human activity, as if they were night scenes in broad daylight. These empty arches and cryptic doorways indicate concealed life.
 

When Freud arrived in Rome for the first time in 1901 he had already been dreaming of the city for many years. Dreams are wish-fulfilments. In the Interpretation of Dreams  four dreams expressed his still unfulfilled longing for Rome. In each of them his dream view of the city is curiously distorted  – his “Rome” is set in Alpine scenery or full of German posters.

Freud’s dream Rome was an unreal city, made up of his fears, wishes and scraps of memories from the previous day. Sharon Kivland’s Rome is the real city, but this  place is an expression of the hidden activities of the mind.