Revisiting Sigmund Freud's Diagrams of the Mind
In: Social analysis: journal of cultural and social practice, Band 63, Heft 4, S. 20-42
ISSN: 1558-5727
One of the original uses of the word 'interior' was to describe that which belongs to or exists in the mind or soul, that is, the mental or spiritual, as opposed to that which is bodily. The etymology of the term gives a clue as to how interior space functions in a manner that is different from the architecture that contains it. This article explores the analogy of architecture as body and the interior as mind through the act of drawing out Sigmund Freud's study and consulting room, with reference to Freud's diagrams of the mind. Working with diagrams, the article will demonstrate a relation between Freud's conceptual shift from descriptive anatomy to hypothetical structures of psychoanalysis and the diagrammatic ordering of the spatial arrangement of his practice.