Art and the Prison of the Unconscious

Abstract

The tyranny of the unconscious has become almost an article of faith in modern appraisals of art-an ingeniously manipulable tool in the service of critical strategies of exposure and dismantling. The discovery and understanding of subterranean forces in the human psyche have been a peculiar achievement of our times, challenging comfortable and sentimental notions of art. But obsession with the unconscious has resulted in a false antagonism with the conscious.