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I am Louise's Inflamed Sense of Rejection: A Psychoanalytic Exploration of Louise Bourgeois' The Destruction of the Father

Sullivan, Samantha N.

Abstract Details

2016, MA, Kent State University, College of the Arts / School of Art.
The artwork of the French-American artist, Louise Bourgeois, was influenced by her childhood, particularly her relationship with her overbearing father. In 1974, Bourgeois used the narrative of children killing and eating their father as the basis of her artwork The Destruction of the Father. Art historians maintained that this work served as the artist’s attempt to therapeutically resolve the damage caused by her sexist father’s emotional abuse. This thesis posits that The Destruction of the Father is not an outlet of catharsis or healing. Instead, the art work reveals the artist’s obsessive fascination with patricide. Using the theories of the psychoanalyst, Jacques Lacan, this thesis examines the artist’s childhood and artwork. According to Lacan, the unconscious is comprised of three registers (or groups) that impact an individuals interaction and reaction to the world around them. Additionally, these registers are shaped by the development of the unconscious during three important psychic events in early childhood: the mirror stage, the Oedipal complex, and the libidinal economy. This thesis utilizes Lacan’s theories on the development of the unconscious to establish the artist’s ongoing compulsion to murder her father in her artwork. This thesis not only provides an alternate viewpoint on Bourgeois’ artistic motivations, but it also incorporates an analysis of the film Fight Club to highlight the erratic and violent nature of the unconscious mind. In Fight Club, a unnamed man unknowingly creates an alternative personality called Tyler Durden to live out his unconscious fantasies. Durden is hyper-masculine, aggressive, and overly sexual – everything his alter ego is not. As his life becomes more complicated by his relationship with Durden, the man attempts to extricate himself from Durden. The film ends with the man believing he is free from the maniacal Durden, but the audience is given hints that Durden will actually return. Like the unnamed narrator in Fight Club, Bourgeois attempted to rid herself of her compulsive and violent behavior. After she symbolically killed her father in her art, like in The Destruction of the Father, she felt temporary pleasure but once that pleasure subsided the urge returned. This thesis ties these apparently disparate works (The Destruction of the Father and Fight Club) together to reveal the impact of the unconscious on an individual.
John-Michael Warner, Ph.D. (Advisor)
Gustav Medicus, Ph.D. (Committee Member)
Diane Scillia, Ph.D. (Committee Member)
Albert Reischuck, M.A. (Committee Member)
71 p.

Recommended Citations

Citations

  • Sullivan, S. N. (2016). I am Louise's Inflamed Sense of Rejection: A Psychoanalytic Exploration of Louise Bourgeois' The Destruction of the Father [Master's thesis, Kent State University]. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=kent1469700016

    APA Style (7th edition)

  • Sullivan, Samantha. I am Louise's Inflamed Sense of Rejection: A Psychoanalytic Exploration of Louise Bourgeois' The Destruction of the Father. 2016. Kent State University, Master's thesis. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center, http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=kent1469700016.

    MLA Style (8th edition)

  • Sullivan, Samantha. "I am Louise's Inflamed Sense of Rejection: A Psychoanalytic Exploration of Louise Bourgeois' The Destruction of the Father." Master's thesis, Kent State University, 2016. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=kent1469700016

    Chicago Manual of Style (17th edition)