Jindrich Styrsky (1899-1942) was a Surrealist who wrote and drew his dreams for all his adult life. His half-sister Marie died when he was 6 and she was 21. She haunted his dreams for the rest of short life--a fused figure, at once mother, sister, friend, lover.

He planned to publish a selection as Sny (1925-1940) ("Dreams (1925-40"); World War II and his early death aborted this. But his best friend, the surrealist Toyen, published it posthumously in 1970.

Styrsky doesn't bother with much interpretation--at least in the published book. Given the era's Freudian winds, maybe it's just as well. But it's hard to miss (at least in retrospect) the dual stresses of Fascism and Communism, as World War II loomed. And illness: he died of heart failure at 42.

I've presented these examples in his order--chronological, not alphabetical like most lists in the World Dream Bank.

RELATED TOPICS: his artistic (and possibly romantic) partner Toyen, fellow surrealist Michel Leiris, surreal dreams in general, contemporary dream-diarists Edwin Muir, Walter de la Mare, Santiago Ramón y Cajal -- See also the full INDEX OF SUBJECTS.

What this site is - Add your dreams! - How to read blurbs - Ratings - Copyright - Downloading - The World Dream Bank has 4000 dreams plus 1000 pages on dreamwork, shamanism, surrealism, fantasy, worldbuilding, creativity and genius. Site © Chris Wayan 2001-2022.

	EMILIE: by Jindrich Styrsky; 1926/7/5, an Oedipal frustration dream of a ghost I'm in a garden with my big sister Emilie, alive again. As she unbuttons my pants, our father appears, swearing he'll shoot me... CAUTION: GHOST-SIBLING INCEST
	TINY ALABASTER HAND: by Jindrich Styrsky; 1928/5/25, a surreal sabotage dream I'm trying to close all the windows so our hunters can't get in, but from a flowerbush a disembodied hand reaches to block me...
	TATTOOED INFANT: by Jindrich Styrsky; 1929/6/3, a surreal nightmare Hunted and captured by a gang of tattooed boys, I see a crying infant already covered in pornographic tattooes... CAUTION: ABUSED BABY
	MANDRAKE ROOT: THE OMNIPRESENT EYE: by Jindrich Styrsky; 1929, a surreal dream I find a mandrake root with multiple eyes watching me. I wake and paint it those eyes over and over for 12 years...
	FATHER: by Jindrich Styrsky; 1931/10/15; nightmare of a revenant I'm lonely in our farmhouse, and relieved when my dad appears, even though he's dead. We quarrel. Up on stilts made of chairs, in a gown, with a candle on his shoulder, my father chases me into a swamp. As we sink in, I think "at least he'll die with me"... CAUTION: HUNTED BY GHOST
	BUTTERFLIES: by Jindrich Styrsky; 1932, again 1937; surreal nightmares Butterflies transfixed with pins yet still alive swarm around me, land on me, prick me. More, smothering me til I wake in pain... CAUTION: OW!
	SCARECROWS AND A BIRDHOUSE: by Jindrich Styrsky; c.1933, a surreal dream The desert. Living scarecrows approach me. One is me! And scarecrow-me wears a sign declaring the time of my death...
	THE BEARDED HEAD: by Jindrich Styrsky; 1936; surreal political dream The bearded head of Karl Marx floats in air, skewered on a flimsy twig...
	BOOKS: by Jindrich Styrsky; 1937; a surreal dream In the fleamarket, a used-book seller is washing his books' flat, dry ears. Under his tender care, they plump and bloom...
	DROWNED WOMAN: by Jindrich Styrsky; 1939; nightmare No dream text; just a quick pencil sketch of an underwater nightmare... CAUTION: DEATH
	GIRL FROZEN IN ICE: by Jindrich Styrsky; 1939, a stark dream image Early sketches show her face bloody with knife-cuts; later ones look like she was just trapped in sea-ice like a polar vessel... CAUTION: KNIFE ATTACK?
	DESERTED HOUSE: by Jindrich Styrsky; July 1940, a surreal cryptomnesic dream I hide from bears in a house Victor Hugo drew. I find legs sticking out of its stone walls, and frogs (defying gravity) mating on the ceiling...
	THE GROVE IN NEDOSIN, or, THE SOMNAMBULIST'S MUSE: by Jindrich Styrsky; July 1940 I'm in a forest clearing with Cinderella, who's eager for sex. But first, shouldn't I pick off the seven snails clinging to her body? CAUTION: SEX DREAM
	THE WEBBED HAND: by Jindrich Styrsky; 1940/12/27; a dream of strangeness breaking in. A palace. A huge locked door, the lock up near the ceiling, unreachable. But something can reach it. The lock falls, the door cracks open, and a webbed hand reaches in...

World Dream Bank homepage - Art gallery - New stuff - Introductory sampler, best dreams, best art - On dreamwork - Books
Indexes: Subject - Author - Date - Names - Places - Art media/styles
Titles: A - B - C - D - E - F - G - H - IJ - KL - M - NO - PQ - R - Sa-Sk - Sl-Sz - T - UV - WXYZ
Email: wdreamb@yahoo.com - Catalog of art, books, CDs - Behind the Curtain: FAQs, bio, site map - Kindred sites