The technique consists of the artist invoking a paranoid state (fear that the self is being manipulated, targeted or controlled by others).
The result is a deconstruction of the psychological concept of identity, such that subjectivity becomes the primary aspect of the artwork.
According to Salvador Dalí, these objects have a minimum of mechanical meaning, but, when viewed, the mind evokes phantom images which are the result of unconscious acts.
[1] The paranoiac-critical method arose from similar surrealistic experiments with psychology and the creation of images such as Max Ernst's frottage or Óscar Domínguez's decalcomania, two surrealist techniques, which involved rubbing pencil or chalk on paper over a textured surface and interpreting the phantom images visible in the texture on the paper.
André Breton (by way of Guy Mangeot) hailed the method, saying that Dalí's paranoiac-critical method was an "instrument of primary importance" and that it "has immediately shown itself capable of being applied equally to painting, poetry, the cinema, the construction of typical Surrealist objects, fashion, sculpture, the history of art, and even, if necessary, all manner of exegesis".