Animal Spirits

When raised Catholic, Sundays start with morning Mass, the house is decorated with crucifixions, and the idea of the soul is introduced, only presented in a positive light, at an early age. This notion starts to collapse once later rationalised. Philosopher Rene Descartes’ believed that the ‘soul’ has a palpable resting place in the middle of the brain, the pineal gland. Through this locus the ‘soul’ intermingled with the physical self, exerting its command over the body through internally flowing animal spirits. The foundation of "Animal Spirits" is based on religious undertones, later built upon accepting Rene Descartes’ beliefs of the ‘soul's’ dominance over the body as reality and acknowledging the separation of the Self into two entities. It also became instinctive to represent this ideology through men, to go against an unrealistic representation of always having to be in control. Once examined through a contemporary lens, the unclear definition of the self and its multiple manifestations become questionable, generating and amplifying uneasy thoughts and sensations.