What Did Surrealism Try to Tap Into?

Surrealism tried to tap into the unconscious mind-the realm of dreams, desires, memories, and thoughts hidden beneath conscious awareness. Heavily influenced by Sigmund Freud’s psychoanalytic theories, Surrealists believed the unconscious held authentic creative power suppressed by rational thought, social convention, and bourgeois morality. Through techniques like automatism, free association, dream recording, and the paranoiac-critical method, artists sought to bypass conscious control and access this deeper creative reservoir. The goal was not merely artistic innovation but liberation-freeing imagination from constraints and ultimately transforming human consciousness and society.