The principle theoretician of Surrealism, Andre Breton, defined the movement as: "Purely psychic automatism through which we undertake to express in words, writing or any other activity, the actual functioning of thought, thoughts dictated apart from any control by reason and any moral or aesthetic consideration. Surrealism rests upon belief in the higher reality or specific forms or associations, previously neglected in the omnipotence of dreams and in the disinterested play of thinking."
The movement was held together by the theories behind it, however the stylizations and approaches differed greatly. Painters such as Salvador Dali and Rene Magritte painted in exacting and detailed manner, others such as Joan Miro and Max Ernst worked in a much more spontaneous and fluid way. These differing approaches did not hurt the popularity of the movement as a whole, as Surrealism achieved the most widespread and controversial success of any aesthetic movement between World War I and World War II.