 The enduring themes of Schwarzkogler's works involved experience of pain and mutilation, often in an incongruous clinical context, such as "3rd Aktion" (1965) in which a patient's head swathed in bandages is being pierced by what appears to be a corkscrew, producing a bloodstain under the bandages.They reflect a message of despair at the disappointments and hurtfulness of the world.Chris Burden once remarked that a 1970s "Newsweek" article, which had mentioned himself and Schwarzkogler, had misreported that Schwarzkogler had died by slicing off his penis during a performance.