Do you know the origin and meaning of the couch? In this article we will focus on this classic piece of furniture, so famous that it has become an icon for Psychoanalysis.

Couch in Psychoanalysis

Many operators of Psychoanalysis, some of whom still use the traditional 'couch', (a piece of armless sofa with one end at an angle, with or without a pillow), although many have opted for armchairs to replace couches, and even those who do not know the origin of the couch and what it means, would like to recall the history of Sigmund Freud's couch.(1856-1939). Let's take this approach to recall the origin and meaning of the couch.

It is worth noting that there are analysts who have studied psychoanalytic theory in depth and don't really know the history of Freud's couch. This brief article aims to step into that gap and make a point. However, in a preliminary way, it is also worth and interesting to point out that there are several themes to be discovered that need a new psychoanalytic look and that are open flanks that only need to be 'prospected' well in order to discover them.

For example, we can cite the 'case' of the theory of pansexualism of the Brazilian physician and psychiatrist Francisco Franco da Rocha (1864-1933), which was the object of research and studies by the psychologist Dr. Josiane Cantos Machado (master in clinical psychology), a researcher with a spectacular work published in the networks, via PUC/SP, about the Emergence of Psychoanalysis in Brazil.

Understanding more about the couch

Many analysts have discussed 'pansexualism' and some did not know more about the origin of the couch and how the couch is connected to various themes like this one. Freud's couch, which was already considered a fetish in the 20th century and, by analogy, a strong symbol of his life, almost a 'monument' next to him, in September 2000 was exhibited for the first time in Brazil, in an exhibition called "Freud: Culture & Conflict", organized by the Library of Congress, in Washington, USA, which had the focus of being itinerant and sought many partnerships.

It was considered one of the largest exhibitions ever made about Freud in the Western world at the time, and one detail, it was first held in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, and then went to Buenos Aires, Argentina, which was already a very respected center of psychoanalysis with a very strong reputation throughout Latin America with an exclusive neighborhood with several offices and use of the couch.

The São Paulo Art Museum (MASP), with the sponsorship of Folha and Petrobras and the support of the Brazilian Psychoanalytic Society and the Brazilian Psychoanalytic Association fostered samples about Freud's life, objects, and biography. The couch was integrated and became part of Freud's psychoanalytic technique, and an analysis on the mobile couch could never be dispensed with. The couch serves to favor the state of free association of ideas in the patient and of floating attention in the analyst, facilitating in both a regressive state of mind because the person relaxes and feels as if he were in the womb of his genitor.

Freud, the patient, and the analytic process

For Freud, the act of lying down on the couch represents the patient's surrender to the analytic process, the permission, even if unconscious, for psychoanalysis to be developed by touching his most sensitive points, without any judgment or hesitation by both parties. The couch serves as a maternal womb.

Regarding Freud's adoption of the divan, they report that it came into his hands as a gift from one of his patients who traveled to Turkey, where the ex-analyzed woman wanted to give him a token of affection, gratitude and recognition for his efforts on her behalf in the course of the analysis and remission of the pathological picture. And the fact occurred in 1890, when the former patient (analyzed) known as 'Madame Benvenisti' buys and donates the piece of furniture to Freud.

And as at Berggasse 19 in Vienna, Austria, where Freud's practice was located between 1891 and 1938, the year in which the psychoanalyst was forced to flee to London to escape from the clutches of Nazism that had taken hold of Austria, the couch that had been gifted to him went with Freud on the move. In London it became an 'icon' that made fashion among the operators of psychoanalysis, psychology, and psychiatry.

Freud's couch and the Turkish carpets

After Freud's death, his daughter Anna Freud (1895-1982) sent the piece to the Freud Museum in London, where it remains to this day; however, it has been on tour for viewing. The couch is visited by over 40,000 people a year in London. Freud's couch was covered with Turkish carpets.

The first carpet was gifted by mister Moritz, a distant relative and merchant in Saxonica (also known as Thessaloniki, a Greek port city on the Aegean Sea's Thermaic Gulf). at the time a province of the Turkish Empire and a center of trade. Mister Moritz acquired the rug in the Turkish port city of Izmir (now Izmir). Knowing the idea that the Europeans had of the Turks in relation to sex, Moritz told Freud about the not uncommon use they made of such rugs, by wrapping women in them to present to suitors.

In ancient Egypt women were wrapped in carpets and offered as objects of pleasure to dignitaries during formal visits. We have the emblematic record of the time, when Cleopatra (69AC-30AC) wrapped in a carpet was presented to Ptolemy XIII (62AC-47AC) and later they became lovers and had a son Ptolemy XV (47AC-30AC). It is important to note that the divan although it has a scaleof strong handmade and pre-industrial production in Turkey there are reports of its previous existence in ancient Greece and Egypt, but it also appears in Roman furniture much appreciated by emperors and their cohorts at parties.

Final considerations

Finally, it is worth pointing out that the act of lying down and relaxing the body by stretching the legs and closing the eyes would be much better to connect with personal history and past life and to feel like in a womb for the memories to flow better. And the divan with many carpets would translate into a cozy, warm spot, making the ideas flow better.

The couch, even if some deny it, has always brought this association to the analysis, and Freud knew how to configure the space and generate this welcoming environment.

Many analysts still continue with the couch, although others have abolished it with the reforms in the analysis protocols, the couch is still a tremendously current classic and awaits further in-depth studies about its real origin in classical antiquity.

I want information to enroll in the Psychoanalysis Course .

This article was written by Edson Fernando Lima de Oliveira. Graduated with a degree in History and Philosophy. PG in Psychoanalysis. Currently doing PG in Clinical Pharmacy and Pharmacological Prescription; academic and researcher of Clinical Psychoanalysis and Clinical Philosophy. Contact via e-mail: [email protected].