Museum Shop Sunday

To celebrate the occasion of Museum Shop Sunday, here at the Freud Museum we are proud to launch our new and exclusive Uncanny Candle. We have teamed up with artist lili Spain to produce a candle which contains rose petals from Sigmund Freud’s own garden in a strictly limited edition of 40 (+ Artist’s Proofs). The candle is named after Freud’s seminal paper The Uncanny, which was published 100 years ago, and which is the subject of our current special exhibition.

In one of Freud’s great works of cultural theory, Civilization and its Discontents, he speculates that the path to civilization began when the first individual brought fire into the home rather than trying to put it out with a ‘stream of urine’. By renouncing the pleasure gained by this ‘show of mastery’ over the fire, this early culture hero achieved a great advance for civilization by harnessing the fire’s potential rather than extinguishing it.

In the context of Freud’s theories, our Uncanny Candle becomes a symbol of this transformative moment when mankind first renounced his instincts and began to travel the path towards civilization. With our Uncanny Candle, you too can ‘achieve the great cultural conquest of bringing fire into your home’.

Explore our latest exhibition The Uncanny: A Centenary and join our First Sunday House Tour at 2pm, both are free with admission ticket – no need to book.