Exhibition: Between Oedipus and the Sphinx: Freud and Egypt

Egyptian artefacts form the largest part of Freud’s collection and lie behind his ‘archaeological metaphor’ – one of his most productive methods for exploring the psyche and developing the practice of psychoanalysis.

Freud thought about the archaeology of the mind while advances in professional archaeology and Egyptology were developing. This fascinating new exhibition will bring Freud into dialogue with his contemporary Flinders Petrie, the first UK Professor of Egyptology, comparing their thoughts on archaeology and their respective collections of artefacts.

Exploring the themes of Egyptomania, sexuality, death and more, objects from Freud and Petrie’s own personal collections will be displayed side by side.

A painting of Oedipus’ encounter with the Sphinx famously hung beside Freud’s couch. Nobody doubts the significance of Oedipus to the development of Freud’s thought but the presence of the Sphinx reminds us of his less celebrated interest in Egyptian culture.

Egypt played a prominent role in Freud’s writings. In his psychobiography of Leonardo da Vinci, Freud uses the Egyptian goddess Mut as the key to the artist’s sexual and creative identity. Egypt again takes centre stage in Freud’s final work Moses and Monotheism where he makes the scandalous claim that Moses was not a Jew but an Egyptian.

This Summer exhibition will explore all these themes and more, with the opportunity to see some never-before displayed Egyptian treasures from Freud’s collection up close.