However, surrealism is not just a movement based on spectacle. The psychological and social realms are also of great importance to the artistic movement. The surrealist mission intends to affect the human psyche by creating a greater understanding of the unconscious through artistic exploration. The conscience, the surrealists believe is not fully realized. Dreams are identified as an element that can help guide the psyche surrealistically.
Dreams definitely are effective in providing humanity with a vision of the unconscious.
However, the most profound surrealistic state is that of the conscious hallucination. This is the true marriage of the unconscious and the conscious states. While being escorted throughout the streets of Rome by two authoritarian figures, the man is confronted by a series of advertisements that become objects on which he projects images that refer to his unquenched sexual urges. This first of these encounters I will describe in detail. Upon stopping in front of a store window, so that his escorts may light cigarettes, the lover spies an advertisement for hand creme.