45 pages • 1 hour read
Sigmund FreudA modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Summary
“Screen Memories”
“The Creative Writer and Daydreaming”
“Family Romances”
Part 1, “Leonardo da Vinci and a Memory of His Childhood”
Part 2, “Leonardo da Vinci and a Memory of His Childhood”
Part 3, “Leonardo da Vinci and a Memory of His Childhood”
Part 4, “Leonardo da Vinci and a Memory of His Childhood”
Part 5, “Leonardo da Vinci and a Memory of His Childhood”
Part 6, “Leonardo da Vinci and a Memory of His Childhood”
Part 1, “The Uncanny”
Part 2, “The Uncanny”
Part 3, “The Uncanny”
Key Figures
Themes
Important Quotes
Essay Topics
Chapter Summaries & Analyses
The fifth section of the essay begins with the observation of a “trifle,” to which “anyone other than a psychoanalyst would attach no importance” (90). Yet repetition is significant, since distraction reveals hidden “impulses.” The repetition in question occurs in a note da Vinci made recording the death of his father. Upon moving into his father’s house at the age of 5, Freud claims that da Vinci would have entered into a psychosexual rivalry with his father. This continued in Leonardo’s taste for fine things. Da Vinci also imitated his father when it came to his artworks, which he ceased to care about as soon as he had completed them, “just as his father had ceased to care about [da Vinci]” (92). Yet when it came to da Vinci’s scientific career, his ability to question authority (the abandoning father) facilitated his scientific research.
Freud contends that as soon as belief in the father breaks down, so does belief in God. While da Vinci was never directly heretical, he did question. Likewise, his aspirations as an aviator are associated by Freud with sexual achievement. Da Vinci’s childlike, playful nature, which saw him develop whimsical court entertainments and riddles, is also linked by Freud to da Vinci’s childhood “erotic bliss” (98).
By Sigmund Freud
Beyond the Pleasure Principle
Beyond the Pleasure Principle
Sigmund Freud
Civilization And Its Discontents
Civilization And Its Discontents
Sigmund Freud
Moses and Monotheism
Moses and Monotheism
Sigmund Freud
On Dreams
On Dreams
Sigmund Freud
The Freud Reader
The Freud Reader
Sigmund Freud
The Future of an Illusion
The Future of an Illusion
Sigmund Freud
The Interpretation of Dreams
The Interpretation of Dreams
Sigmund Freud
Three Essays on the Theory of Sexuality
Three Essays on the Theory of Sexuality
Sigmund Freud