Sigmund Freud and the Monument: by Ro Spankie
A guest article from Ro Spankie, University of Westminster
“In sixteen hundred and sixty-six, London burnt like rotten sticks…”
In 1909 Sigmund Freud was invited to visit America and lecture on psychoanalysis. This is an extract from the first of his talks.
“Ladies and Gentlemen, if I may be allowed to generalize – which is unavoidable in so condensed an account as this – I should like to formulate what we have learned so far as follows: our hysterical patients suffer from reminiscences. Their symptoms are residues and mnemic symbols of particular (traumatic) experiences. We may perhaps obtain a deeper understanding of this kind of symbolism if we compare them with other mnemic symbols in other fields. The monuments and memorials with which large cities are adorned are also mnemic symbols. If you take a walk through the streets of London, you will find… not far from London Bridge… a towering… column, which is simply known as ‘The Monument’. It was designed as a memorial of the Great Fire, which broke out in that neighbourhood in 1666 and destroyed a large part of the city. These monuments, then, resemble hysterical symptoms in being mnemic symbols.”
Freud then uses the analogy of architectural monuments to explain the effect of such mnemic symbols on some of his patients:
“… what should we think of a Londoner who shed tears before the monument that commemorates the reduction of his beloved Metropolis to ashes although it has long since risen again in far greater brilliance? Yet every single hysteric and neurotic behaves like (these) … unpractical Londoners. Not only do they remember painful experiences of the remote past, but they still cling to them emotionally; they cannot get free of the past and for its sake they neglect what is real and immediate. This fixation of mental life to pathogenic traumas is one of the most significant and practically important characteristics of neurosis.”
The word ‘monument’ stems from the Latin monēre, ‘to remind’, and as Freud says, the colossal Portland stone Doric column, topped by a golden flaming urn, was built to remind Londoners of the traumatic time when their great city was almost destroyed. Guidebooks say that it was designed by Christopher Wren, and constructed between 1671 and 1677. It stands 202 feet high, and is symbolically positioned 202 feet west of the point where the fire started in Pudding Lane. It creates the focal point of a perspective view at the top of Fish Hill. Inside is a spiral staircase of 311 steps, leading to a viewing platform at the top, offering spectacular views of the new city risen from the flames. (Unintentionally it also provided a popular suicide spot, resulting in 1842 in a cage being built around the top.)
But things also get forgotten, or as Freud would say suppressed. Modern historians now agree that the Monument was actually designed by Wren’s long-term friend and collaborator Robert Hooke, and that the structure had a second less visible function. Hooke was a scientist and Curator of Experiments for the Royal Society in London, a role that required him to make practical demonstrations to the members. Many of these experiments included precision instruments for measuring time and distance, and architecture provided Hooke with the opportunity for constructing these at a scale that would otherwise have been impossible.
Thus, what is not immediately apparent from the outside, is that the Monument was a purpose-built location for scientific experiments involving heights. It was also a zenith telescope, pointing straight upwards, and relying on the earth’s rotation to direct it at different points in the sky. As the section drawing shows, the basement contained a domed laboratory, while the flaming urn at the top functioned as a hinged lid that, when opened, allowed an operator standing at the base to observe the heavens up the shaft of the column. This was the reason that Wren had convinced Charles II on Hooke’s behalf that crowning the column with an urn rather than a statue would enable firework displays to be staged on top of the column.
In 1950 the Monument was awarded Grade I listing and declared (with an unintended tautology) a scheduled monument. The protection order was necessary because, unlike Freud’s hysterical and neurotic patients, a great city moves relentlessly forward and tends to forget its past. In addition, despite architecture’s best intentions, meanings are not set in stone. Standing today surrounded by glass skyscrapers and heavy traffic, it not a question of remembering but rather imagining the medieval wooden city that the Monument commemorates, and the horror of its destruction. And now that we have remembered its forgotten history, perhaps the Monument should in fact be seen - as Lisa Jardine suggests - as “a lasting memorial to the liaison between the City and Science – between commerce and knowledge.”
In October 2011, a Live Music Sculpture created especially for the Monument by British composer Samuel Bordoli was performed 18 times during one weekend. This was the first occasion that music had ever been heard inside the structure, and effectively transformed it into a gigantic reverberating musical instrument.
Thanks to John Hare for permission to use his drawing of the Monument, which was reproduced in The Curious Life of Robert Hooke: The Man who Measured London by Lisa Jardine (HarperCollins Publishers, 2003) p.172
"Sigmund Freud na Monument: na Ro Spanky, ""Mwaka 1666, London ilichoma kama vijiti vilivyooza""" Hii ni sehemu ya hotuba yake ya kwanza. "Wanawake na wanaume, kama ninaweza kuruhusiwa generalize - ambayo ni inevitable katika kama condensed akaunti kama hii - Ningependa kuunda kile tumejifunza hadi sasa kama ifuatavyo: wagonjwa wetu hysterical wanateseka kutokana na reminiscences. """ Dalili zao ni mabaki na alama za kumbukumbu za uzoefu fulani (wa kiwewe). Labda tunaweza kupata uelewa wa kina zaidi wa aina hii ya ishara ikiwa tutailinganisha na alama nyingine za mnemic katika nyanja nyingine. Mnara wa ukumbusho na makaburi ambayo majiji makubwa hupambwa nayo pia ni ishara za kukumbuka. Ukipiga matembezi katika barabara za London, utapata... si mbali na Daraja la London... nguzo... kubwa, ambayo inajulikana tu kama <unk>The Monument<unk>. Jengo hilo lilijengwa kwa ajili ya kuwakumbusha watu kuhusu moto mkubwa uliotokea katika eneo hilo mwaka wa 1666 na kuharibu sehemu kubwa ya jiji hilo. "Kwa hivyo, kumbukumbu hizi zinafanana na dalili za hysterical katika kuwa alama za mnemic. ""Basi, Freud hutumia mfano wa kumbukumbu za usanifu kuelezea athari ya alama hizo za mnemic kwa baadhi ya wagonjwa wake: ""Ni nini tunapaswa kufikiri juu ya Londoner ambaye alinyesha machozi mbele ya ukumbusho ambao unakumbuka kupunguzwa kwa Metropolis yake mpendwa kwa majivu ingawa kwa muda mrefu imeinuka tena kwa mwangaza mkubwa zaidi?" Hata hivyo kila mtu mwenye kichaa na kichaa hujiendesha kama (hizi)... watu wa London wasio na ustadi. Si kwamba tu wanakumbuka mambo mabaya ya zamani, bali pia wanaendelea kuyashikilia kwa hisia; hawawezi kuachana na mambo ya zamani na kwa ajili yake wanapuuza mambo halisi na ya sasa. "Neno ""monument"" linatokana na neno la Kilatini ""monere"" - kukumbusha, na kama Freud anavyosema, nguzo kubwa ya mawe ya Doric ya Portland, iliyotajwa na chungu cha dhahabu cha moto, ilijengwa ili kuwakumbusha Londoners wakati wa msiba wakati mji wao mkubwa ulikuwa karibu kuharibiwa." Kitabu cha mwongozo wa safari cha The Great Wall cha Uingereza kinaonyesha kwamba jengo hilo lilibuniwa na Christopher Wren na lilijengwa kati ya 1671 na 1677. Mti huo una urefu wa mita 20 na umewekwa kwa njia ya mfano mita 20 magharibi mwa mahali ambapo moto ulianza katika Pudding Lane. Inaunda kituo cha mtazamo wa mtazamo juu ya Fish Hill. Ndani ya jengo hilo kuna ngazi 311 zinazoelekea kwenye jukwaa la kutazama jiji hilo jipya lililokuwa limechomwa moto. (Hata hivyo, kwa bahati mbaya, eneo hilo lilikuwa mahali pa kujiua, na mwaka wa 1842 ngome ilijengwa juu ya eneo hilo.) "Kwa hivyo, kuna uwezekano wa kuwa na ""mfano wa Freud"" au ""mfano wa Freud"" au ""mfano wa Freud"" au ""mfano wa Freud"" au ""mfano wa Freud"" au ""mfano wa Freud"" au ""mfano wa Freud.""" Wanahistoria wa kisasa sasa wanakubali kwamba Mnara huo wa Ukumbusho uliundwa na rafiki wa muda mrefu wa Wren na mshirika Robert Hooke, na kwamba muundo huo ulikuwa na kazi ya pili isiyoonekana sana. Hooke alikuwa mkurugenzi wa majaribio ya Royal Society ya London, na alikuwa na jukumu la kufanya maonyesho kwa wanachama. Majaribio hayo mengi yalitia ndani vifaa vya kupima wakati na umbali, na Hooke alipata fursa ya kutengeneza vifaa hivyo kwa kiwango ambacho kingewezekana bila vifaa hivyo. Kwa hiyo, kile ambacho hakionekani mara moja kutoka nje, ni kwamba Mnara huo wa Ukumbusho ulikuwa mahali palipojengwa kwa kusudi la kufanya majaribio ya kisayansi yanayohusisha urefu. Pia ilikuwa darubini-upeo ya zeniti, iliyoelekeza moja kwa moja juu, na kutegemea mzunguko wa dunia kuiongoza kwenye sehemu tofauti-tofauti angani. Kama picha ya sehemu ya chini ya ardhi inavyoonyesha, chumba cha chini cha ardhi kilikuwa na chumba cha maabara kilicho na umbo la mviringo, na chombo cha moto kilichokuwa juu kilikuwa kama kifuniko kilichokuwa na mhimili ambacho kilipofunguliwa, mtendaji aliyekuwa amesimama chini ya nguzo hiyo angeweza kuona anga. Kwa sababu hiyo, Wren alimshinda Charles II kwa niaba ya Hooke kwamba kuupamba nguzo hiyo kwa chungu badala ya sanamu kungefanya iwezekane kuandaa maonyesho ya moto juu ya nguzo hiyo. Mnamo mwaka wa 1950, Monument ilipewa daraja la kwanza na kutangazwa (kwa tautolojia isiyo ya makusudi) kama mnara wa kumbukumbu uliopangwa. Amri ya ulinzi ilikuwa muhimu kwa sababu, tofauti na wagonjwa wa Freud wenye kichefuchefu na kichaa, jiji kubwa huendelea mbele bila kukata tamaa na huwa na mwelekeo wa kusahau wakati wake uliopita. Kwa kuongezea, licha ya nia nzuri za usanifu-ujenzi, maana hazijawekwa katika jiwe. Leo, wakati unasimama kuzungukwa na majengo ya juu ya kioo na trafiki nzito, sio suala la kukumbuka, bali kufikiria mji wa mbao wa enzi za kati ambao Mnara wa Ukumbusho unakumbuka, na hofu ya uharibifu wake. "Na sasa kwamba tumekumbuka historia yake iliyosahaulika, labda Mnara huo unapaswa kuonekana - kama Lisa Jardine anavyosema - kama ""ukumbusho wa kudumu wa uhusiano kati ya Jiji na Sayansi, kati ya Biashara na Ujuzi"" ""Mwanzo wa Muziki wa Moja kwa Moja ulioundwa hasa kwa Mnara huo na mtunzi wa Uingereza Samuel Bordale, ulifanywa mara 18 wakati wa mwisho wa wiki moja." Hii ilikuwa mara ya kwanza kwamba muziki ulikuwa umesikika ndani ya jengo hilo, na kwa ufanisi lilibadilisha kuwa ala kubwa ya muziki yenye kunguruma. "Mwanzoni mwa mwaka wa 2003, John Hare alitoa picha ya ""The Curious Life of Robert Hooke: The Man Who Measured London"" kwa ajili ya maktaba ya HarperCollins."