The Ritual of the Serpent: Image Analysis and Psychic Healing in Aby Warburg's 'Serpent Ritual' Lecture

Zizheng Zhou

Abstract

This article analyzes Aby Warburg’s Serpent Ritual lecture—delivered at Bellevue Sanatorium during his recovery—as both visual analysis and therapeutic act. By adopting a shamanic role and using slides as ritual instruments, Warburg transformed scholarship into a performative healing practice. Using his iconological method, cultural psychology, and the concept of Pathosformel, the study interprets the lecture’s images as mediators between inner psychic states and cultural symbols. The lecture emerges as a symbolic act of self-rescue and a rehearsal for his interdisciplinary “nameless science.” Anticipating the Mnemosyne Atlas, it demonstrates how image, ritual, and mental crisis intersect, underscoring the lecture’s originality and lasting significance in the history of visual thought.

Keywords

Aby WarburgSerpent RitualImage AnalysisPsychic Healing

References

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