“Do you think you painted all of

                        your pictures consciously?”

           was a casual question to the artist,

and she replied, fully convinced,

                                                    “of course!”

However, during their twelve year-long study, the authors, a psychotherapist and an artist, have made fascinating discoveries concerning the dominant role of the unconscious in the creation of the artist’s images. They explore the mysterious land of the unconscious in Susanne Schuenke’s surrealistic paintings, in a manner analogous to the interpretation of dreams in psychoanalysis. Based on this approach, Naum Itkin and Susanne Schuenke deciphered how personal and universal information is unconsciously coded in the artist’s mind and manifested in artworks that are allegorical, metaphorical, und symbolic expressions of her significant emotional experiences, and reflect biological, psychological, social, and spiritual aspects of human existence. The artist’s designs have been nourished by various facets in her life, attitudes, concept, beliefs, personality issues, complexes, and repressed tendencies, all of which are implicitly transmuted into imagery; every part and detail, twist and turn, and shade and shape turns out to carry pertinent, unconscious, and symbolic implications. The research has revealed how the unconscious permeates the artist’s life and relentlessly influences her perception, behavior, and decisions without her awareness. From 2007 onward, recognizing the value of such an endeavor, the artist agreed to provide private data and reveal the secrets of her intimate life for scientific purposes which have been an inestimable advantage in this study.