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This paper briefly presents the transfer of the induced song recall technique, presented in this Journal in 1990, to the induced recall of paintings. Also included is the recent proposal of using the term unintentional rather than spontaneous evocations; the latter is technically incorrect because such evocations are a result of the unconscious induction of one member of the treatment dyad by the other (Díaz de Chumaceiro, 1987, 1988, 1990, 1996a). Clinical examples of unconsciously and consciously induced recalls of paintings will be discussed, including a supervised case of the recall of painting and music.
Freud's (1901) well-known brief comment on observing the unintentional humming of tunes is applicable to the visual arts. By taking note of the art objects that unwittingly come to mind, one can invariably discover the link between this object and a subject that is attracting the evoker's attention.
Paintings, in contrast to music, may afford the viewer sublimatory sensual excitation. On touching and looking, Freud (1905) wrote:
A certain amount of touching is indispensable … before the normal sexual aim can be obtained. And everyone knows what a source of pleasure on the one hand and what an influx of fresh excitation on the other is afforded by tactile sensations of the skin of the sexual object. …
The same holds true of seeing—an activity that is ultimately derived from touching. Visual impressions remain the most frequent pathway along which libidinal excitation is aroused. … It is usual for most normal people to linger to some extent over the intermediate sexual aim of a looking that has a sexual tinge to it; indeed, this offers them a possibility of directing some proportion of their libido on to higher artistic aims. (p. 156)