Freud and Eros: Love, Lust and Longing, The Freud Museum

Freud: a household name invoked in all matters of the mind and usually attached to a foggy sense of suppressed sexual perversion. We are all familiar with the Freudian slip and the Oedipus complex; however these popularisations of Sigmund Freud’s theories barely scratch the surface of his pioneering efforts into the human mind and his development of psychoanalysis.

Freud: eros and thanatos

Eros is love. More specifically it is one of four Greek words that all translate to mean love. Giving us the English word ‘erotic’, Freud’s Eros describes a specific love, a sexual longing, the desire to create life and to stave off Thanatos (the death drive). Much of the initial theory of psychoanalysis revolves around Eros and its pervasive hold over our conscious and subconscious minds.

In Freud and Eros: Love, Lust and Longing, this force of love provides a context within which Freud’s personal life can be explored. Sculptural representations of Eros as the Greek god of love will be displayed alongside statues, models and other works of art, all from Freud’s personal collection. A selection of letters from the correspondence between Freud and his wife Martha Bernays highlight his private passion, while extracts from his writings shed light on the fascinatingly complex phenomenon of love.

The Freud Museum London exhibition

The Freud Museum, London was once Freud’s home, is now preserved as an archive and memorial. There is a pleasing symmetry in that the Eros Freud studied and the Eros he experienced in his personal world should converge in an exhibition in the building where he both lived and worked. He believed that Eros had the potential to bring about a harmonious and civilizing love, but that it could also whip up turbulent storms of destructive emotion.

Excitingly the exhibition also includes new works from contemporary artists such as Jodie Carey, Edmund de Waal and Rachel Kneebone, all creating new insights into this double-edged blade of Eros. There's also a hefty schedule of talks, performances and films running alongside the exhibition that shouldn't be missed.