Incest Revealed in the Work of Niki Saint Phalle

Niki Saint Phalle revealed her incest at age sixty two in a book called “My Secret”. She revealed it also unconsciously before in the pictural, sculptural and cinematographic work. (a woman protecting herself from a dragon a self portrait with a double mouth, the Nanas, the love mouth of the Stavinski fountain), Freud the first showed us the path with the interpretation of the paintings of Leonardo da Vinci. The incest had consequences: self-arm, feelings of being excluded from the society, impossibility to tell her mother, headaches, hate towards her father, a breakdown and no recognition. of psychiatrists The sublimation in painting and sculpture, and in her movie Daddy was a way to elaborate the sexual traumatism. She was able to develop an imaginary life thanks to her hysterical personality. Creation helped her to feel better and sooth anxiety, shame and guilt. Her book My Secret can be considered as a self-analysis. The rape developed in her, fantasies and sadistic sexual drives by identification to the aggressor that we find in her movie Daddy. Her book “My secret” brings the material like in a psychoanalytic session with free association. Niki Saint Phalle did a remarkable self-analysis of her sexual traumatism, with words.