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Mona in the mirror

Freud's ambivalence to Leonardo's cathexis revisited

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 January 2018

Digby Quested
Digby Quested*
Affiliation:
The Maudsley Hospital, Denmark Hill, London SE5 8AF
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In ‘Leonardo Da Vinci and a memory of his childhood’, Freud (1910) provided an analysis of the artist's personality and sexuality, with a description of his capacity to sublimate his libido into creative works. He discussed the Mona Lisa's ability to command attention and induce differing emotions within the viewer. In his paper he described the distinct elements of her expression, “The contrast between reserve and seduction, and between the most devoted tenderness and a sensuality that is ruthlessly demanding – consuming men as if they were alien beings”.

Type
Original articles
Information
Psychiatric Bulletin , Volume 16 , Issue 12 , December 1992 , pp. 754 - 756
Creative Commons
Creative Common License - CCCreative Common License - BY
This is an Open Access article, distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC-BY) license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted re-use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
Copyright
Copyright © Royal College of Psychiatrists 1992

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