A representative artist of Norway, Edvard Munch is regarded as a forerunner of expressionism. In this study, I tried to find the basis of anxiety and fear about the existence that the artist suffered throughout his entire life through the images of women depicted in his art, and have reviewed the processes of changes of internal consciousness and psychology of the artist in connection with that.
For this, I have divided the images of women reproduced in his works into three categories and I have analyzed the subjective meaning based on the experiences of the artist in his life together with the meanings of epochal and artistic history that each category possessed.
Through three different types of women, Munch emphasized that love is the biggest factor
causing anxiety in life and the final destination of love is death after all. Negative emotions of the artist about love, life, and women reflected in his art works all originated from his insecure
attachment with his parents during his youth. In other words, fear of loss and rejection embedded in the inner world of the artist caused anxiety and a defensive mechanism against that anxiety produced the rejection and dismissal of love. After all, fear and death expressed in his art works were another expression of frustrated desires, that is, aspiration for love and life. Furthermore, the art works of Munch that exemplify the psychological status of modern people can be used as media for art therapy that facilitates the expression and understanding of the subconscious.
Key Words : Art Therapy, Anxiety, Death, Insecure Attachment