A small, intriguing exhibition, which – though it doesn’t yield its insights easily – rewards a little persistence. Looking at psychoanalysis as both a body of knowledge and a form of treatment, and considering the ways in which the unconscious can be interpreted through everyday experience and artefacts, the show demonstrates a dawning realisation at the Science Museum that narrative and emotion are a way to reach audiences for whom scientific fact or spectacle alone can be alienating.
Along with works inspired by psychoanalytic ideas by artists including Grayson Perry and Arnold Dreyblatt (whose ‘The Wunderblock’ draws on Freud’s comparison of memory with a magic writing tablet) , among the exhibits are toys used by psychoanalysts in their work with children, votives of body parts and a case of everyday objects, such as a mobile phone and a handbag, which visitors are invited to consider in a new light.
Details of a programme of events accompanying the exhibition can be found at www.beyondthecouch.org.uk.