Corset, 1850-1900, Sigmund Freud Museum, Vienna

Pigment ink on gloss Baryta
14.5 x 8.5 in. / 37 x 22 cm 
Edition of 3
Unframed
2016

"Freud died in London, where he settled after fleeing Vienna to escape Nazi persecution. During his lifetime, and ever since his death in 1939, Freud’s clinical methods have been questioned, his academic theories discredited and his personal conduct criticized. However, to this day, his concepts shape our thinking and colour our conversations. We talk knowingly about the id, the ego and the superego; the Oedipus complex and the death wish; female and infantile sexuality; rationalization, denial, and projection; the conscious, subconscious and unconscious; and of course, the Freudian slip. We are all Freudians.

"I hope this body of work will stimulate viewers to think about the profound impacts of Freud's theories and the cataclysmic events of World War Two.

"For almost 50 years, Sigmund Freud, the father of psychoanalysis, lived and worked at number 19 Berggasse in Vienna. There I searched for items that Freud had actually touched, relics that contain his DNA. Because all his furniture and possessions had been removed in 1938, I had to content myself with the doors, floors, stairwells and light fixtures that remain unchanged."

- L. Hossack

This corset was displayed in an exhibition, "So this is the strong sex. Women in Psychoanalysis," dedicated to women from the early history of psychoanalysis.