Surrealism was an artistic movement born in Paris in the 1920's from the mind of André Breton. It grew from the Dada movement as a reaction to traditional art and sound logical thought. The word surreal is a fusion of the French words sur meaning "on" and real meaning "real." From this we might conclude the definition "above reality" or "beyond reality."
      Breton wrote the Manifestoes of Surrealism in 1924 and detailed how one might answer the following question: how shall I go about creating without tainted preconceptions? The most interesting and prevalent of the techniques presented was automatism, the idea that you would be able to express your deepest unconscious thoughts and emotions by writing without thinking. By simply allowing your hand to form words and not be concerned about what came out you would be free from criticizing the product. The same idea was applied to painting and also to filmmaking to some extent, and yielding some fascinating results. While such a romantic method of expression served the growth of surrealism it was fatally flawed in that the acts of writing, painting and filmmaking are critical processes. What remained after this realization was the heart of this idea, simply to utilize a cathartic medium to translate thoughts and emotions into a solid (written or visual) form.
      In today's society the word surreal seems to be misused by those both in artistic fields and the general public. It appears to have become a synonym for weird or unusual. Even though this could reflect the meaning of the word as defined above, it does not accurately illustrate the philosophy behind the creative process of Surrealism. As the artistic movement grew and evolved it never lost sight of its founding ideal. Varying social factors may have contributed to the dilution of its ideas including possibly, the Second World War and subsequent art movements.
      Surrealism was a social conflict that sought to change people's way of thinking about what creativity is. Paradoxically, it never professed a desire to be embraced by the structural functionalist society as social conflict is generally intended. Instead it vehemently maintained its distance as an elite practice for those willing to surrender to their subconscious. Understanding this fact begs the question: how can a social conflict such as Surrealism become so integrated into society that it loses the potency of its founding philosophy?