Which surrealist technique involves writing without conscious control?

Automatic writing is the Surrealist technique of writing without conscious control. The writer tries to bypass deliberate reasoning and let words, associations, or images emerge spontaneously.

The method became central to Surrealism because artists regarded the unconscious as a source of creative material. André Breton described Surrealism in terms of “pure psychic automatism,” and Breton and Philippe Soupault used automatic methods while composing Les Champs magnétiques in 1919.

Automatic writing is related to, but not identical with, automatic drawing. In writing, the medium is language; in drawing, the hand makes uncontrolled marks or images. Surrealists often treated these procedures as ways to generate ideas, although some revised or shaped the results afterward.

The term can cause confusion because automatic writing also appears in Spiritualist and occult traditions, where practitioners claim to receive messages from spirits. In psychological explanations, some examples may involve the ideomotor effect or unconscious processes rather than paranormal communication. Grattage means scraping paint, frottage involves rubbing a surface to create texture, and decalcomania transfers paint between surfaces.