Antonin Artaud was born on 4 September 1896, On 4 March 1948 Artaud died, alone in his pavilion, sitting at the feet of Antonin Artaud was born on 4 September 1896, On 4 March 1948Artaud died, alone in his pavilion, sitting at the foot of the bed, holding the shoe in his hand. Theories suggest he died from a lethal dose of the drug chloral, although it is unknown whether or not he took it knowing it was a lethal dose. Artaud has been described as a madman and his credentials are impeccable. At the age of 21 he had already suffered from meningitis, hereditary syphilis and nervous breakdown. Furthermore, he spent around 15 years of his life inside various psychiatric institutions. (I myself spent nine years in a mental hospital and have never had an obsession with suicide, but I know that every conversation with the psychiatrist, every morning at the time of his visit, made me want to hang myself, realizing that no I could have cut his throat).Max Ernst - Surrealism and painting (1942)SurrealismDictionary: Surrealism, n. Pure psychic automatism, through which one aims to express, either verbally, in writing, or in any other way, the real functioning of thought. Dictation of thought in the absence of any control exercised by reason, outside of any aesthetic and moral concern. Encyclopedia: Surrealism. Philosophy. Surrealism is based on faith in the higher reality of certain previously neglected forms of associations, in the omnipotence of dreams, in the disinterested play of thought. It tends to ruin all other psychic mechanisms once and for all and to replace them in the resolution of all the main problems of life." Artaud's book in which he collected essesya/theories on theater was entitled "The theater and its double". an opinion on why he titled his book that, perhaps he believed that real life was very similar to theatre, very dramatic artaud's theater of cruelty was artaud's attempt to revolutionize the theater and free the mind and the spirit from the grip of culture. Not through sadism or causing pain, but with a violent and physical determination to shatter the false reality, which according to him “is found as if