Sigmund Freud

Photo of Freud's Famous Couch on display at D.C. museum this year

Photographer Annie Leibovitz, known for using the camera as a tool of provocation, has unveiled a series of pictures for an upcoming exhibit. Among them is the couch of the late psychologist Sigmund Freud.

While now it's cliché to link therapy with the image of a patient lounging, eyes closed on a office sofa, it was Freud's style of having his clients drop to the couch to recline, relax and expel all their emotions that gave birth to this trend.

You can study Leibovitz's photograph of Freud's couch at the Smithsonian's American Art Museum in Washington, D.C., where the image will be on display in an exhibit entitled "Annie Leibovitz: Pilgrimage" from now until May 20.

Looking at the burgundy-covered couch with its throw pillows, you can't help but wonder how many troubled minds lay on it... did they just lay... were there scandalous acts performed there?! This couch has been famous and written about for years. It originated in at his office in Germany, but in the late 1930s followed Freud to his new office in London, England -- where he purportedly moved to avoid Nazis.

The Freud Museum in London now curates the actual couch. Yearly, it's customary for groups of psychology students to tour the museum and Freud's actual estate to get an up-close view of the famed psychologist's environ -- as if they are going on a pilgrimage to commune with the Great Spirits.

But you don't have to take a transcontinental flight to commune with this notorious couch; you can just go to D.C. If you can't tear you eyes away from the framed photo, the museum's website states that you can buy Leibovitz' "Pilgrimage" book upon exit; it will have the couch photo, along with images of other famous relics from the showing, inside.

New Movie Offers Titillating Look into Freud's Psychoanalysis

Ever lay in bed roused by thoughts of how modern psychoanalysis came to be? If so, you’re in luck since the movie “The Dangerous Method” is showing in select cities right now. The film, coming to DVD in March, examines how the ideas and practices of Sigmund Freud and Carl Jung intermingled to birth psychoanalysis.

Of course, this is cinematized by throwing a woman in the middle of the plotline for the two men to battle over. More than a mere story contrivance, the woman – Sabrina Spielrain – was a real psychoanalyst who teetered on the fulcrum between sanity and madness. There is sex and theory, but not sensuality and romance. This very clinical look at what drives sexual motivation is one of the unsexiest movies I’ve ever seen. While the movie “Kinsey” -- about the renowned sexual researcher and professor at Indiana University who established the Kinsey Report -- managed to drip with humanity and passion, this scientific study of lust reduced sex to something of depraved repulsion.

Since this is about Freud, whose theories I often question and detest, I am hardly surprised.

Just so you know, most theatregoers are not impressed – although, according to Rotten Tomatoes, the critics love it.

This movie is for those who like sensationalized psychology and aren’t disturbed by having sexuality frankly discussed. As we all remember from our college courses, Freud was a freak! I recommend that you read up on Freud, Jung as well as Spielrain so that you can enjoy the movie more. Don’t wait for the movie to teach or clarify anything for you – because you will be so out of luck.