Portrait of Freud -- Dali

Freud was a neurologist who was famous for his psychoanalyst theory of psychology which subsumes his theories on psychosexual development (the Oedipus Complex), defense mechanisms, the unconscious mind, and much (very, very much) more. Also, Freud believed that all dreams may contain clues to thoughts the dreamer is afraid to acknowledge in his or her waking hours. This theory influenced much of the surrealist Dali's later work, which he explains on the following description of his oil painting entitled, Dream Caused by the Flight of a Bee Around a Pomegranate One Minute Before Awakening (1944):

“[It was intended] to express for the first time in images Freud’s discovery of the typical dream with a lengthy narrative, the consequence of the instantaneousness of a chance event which causes the sleeper to wake up. Thus, as a bar might fall on the neck of a sleeping person, causing them to wake up and for a long dream to end with the guillotine blade falling on them, the noise of the bee here provokes the sensation of the sting which will awaken Gala.”

You can read an essay about Dali's connection with Freud here.