Sigmund Freud’s essay, “The Uncanny” begins by drawing attention to the German word, “unheimlich” in opposition to the word “heimlich” meaning homey, familiar, or comfortable. Being that the essay is a response to Jentsch’s earlier research in stating that uncanniness is the fear of the unfamiliar through intellectual uncertainty (418), Freud presents “unheimlich” against “heimlich” in an attempt to define the word in the relation to the uncanny as being surrounded by fear, but also having a sense of familiarity attached to that feeling as well. By this being the motivation of the essay, this paper will be discussing the structure of the essay as it is divided into three parts: the definition of the uncanny, the examination of Hoffman’s short …show more content…
Coming from a psychoanalytic perspective, the events that took place throughout the story are related to the fear of being castrated. This fear of castration in relation to the loss of one’s eyes comes about as Freud explains that, “a study of dreams, phantasies, and myths, has taught us that anxiety about one’s eyes, the fear of going blind, is often enough a substitute for the dread of being castrated” (424). The castration complex is introduced through the protagonist of the story, Nathaniel. His castration complex that is represented through Hoffman’s use of the Sandman in relation to the death of Nathaniel’s father who dies due to an explosion after having gotten the lawyer Coppelius to spare Nathaniel’s eyes from being burned out of his head (422). As Nathaniel grows older he encounters an optician named Coppola from whom he receives a spy-glass and after having looked through the glass, he sees a robot named Olympia who very much could pass for a human being; he falls in love with not knowing she was created Spalanzani. Upon witnessing a fight between both Coppola and Spalanzani, Olympia’s eyes have been removed from her head (422). This event that has taken place, acts as the double. The doubling of Spalanzani as the father and Coppola as Coppelius. The fight between these two man act as a recurrence of the fight between Nathaniel’s father and Coppelius. The double is also related to the formation super-ego, the super-ego projects all that has been repressed until an uncanny experience occurs that allots for the repressed material to come forth. The story is concluded with Nathaniel falling into a fit after having looked through the spy-glass a final time, which acts as the relationship between the uncanny and seeing. The spy-glass reveals the heimlich and makes it unheimlich, allowing for Nathaniel
The concept of the uncanny can be a difficult one to comprehend; this is why Freud begins his essay with an analysis of the different definitions of the uncanny in various languages. Ultimately Freud rests that the German terms “heimlich” and “unheimlich” best match the definition of the uncanny because it is translated as familiar and unfamiliar. The uncanny can be defined as something that creates a feeling of familiarity but also unfamiliarity, and this unfamiliarity is what is fearful to the individual. Freud’s essay “The Uncanny” can be related to the field of literary criticism because he explains how the feeling of the uncanny relates to the author’s attempt to convey a certain response from their audience. This type of analysis bridges Freud’s work and Larsen’s novel in order to re-examine and debate certain moments in Passing that after a second look can be defined as uncanny. Passing is a short novel that centers on two mixed women who reunite in their adult lives and describe how they are trying to “pass” as white to society. Clare’s motive for passing is so that she can live a luxurious life with her white husband who is extremely racist. Whereas Irene is trying to pass when she goes out in society, her husband Brian is fully aware and is a black doctor. Irene and Clare’s childhoods and pasts are vague which allows there to be room for psychoanalysis, particularly with the character Irene and her feelings towards Clare. Through psychoanalytical criticism of the uncanny moments that occur in Larsen’s novel Passing build tension between Irene and Clare and it is argued that Irene pushed Clare from the window that caused her death in order for Irene to keep her secure life with her husband.
When reading we often harness particular threads of thought or lenses of critique to gain entry into the implied historic or legendary nature of literature. To accurately process a tale in the light in which it is presented, one must consider the text from multiple viewpoints. Taking into consideration the psychological circumstances of the presenter/author/narrator, we can get a view into how our personal experiences can create bias in interpretation. By placing the elements of the story into the web of relationships used to interpret the external world, we bring a view of the text from the external perspective. All of these factors are at play in the relations between the perspective within a text, creating a form of reality with its own historic and mythic properties. Characters have their own histories and structures, expressed or not, and their perception in the fictional world they reside exerts influence outward to the reader of literature. This influence can create a sense of immersive reality that renders the reading experience to be mythic truth, based in facts but not emotion or direct perception, a somewhat distanced portrayal of events. However it can also be an expression of perceptive truth, events are experienced much they would be in real life – confusing and disjointed. To look into these problems of perspective, I will use examples from “The Red Convertible” by Lois Erdrich to demonstrate how Lyman’s narration style is representative of psychoanalytic concepts, showing how he deals with the situations presented in his life.
The biggest psychological portion of the book has to come from the character Cyrus Finch. He goes by CyFi for short and is also sometimes referred to as just Cy. He is one of the few mentioned characters that has received a body part from an Unwind. Unfortunately, often times the parts people receive from Unwinds keep or retain tricks or habits the original owners or people had, and Cyrus is an individual who received a part like this. Now, an important fact about CyFi is that he’s smart, and he talks a lot. But he “talks funny” according to Lev. CyFi explains that he is umber and used to be called “black” in times past, and that he talks that way to respect his ancestors, adding to the fact that past experiences (in this case learning about his ancestors) can change how people act. One day, he is talking to Lev about how smart he is and how losing his right temporal lobe and gaining someone else’s has affected him. He says to Lev (the numbers are his IQ), “My dads made sure I got an entire temporal lobe from a single donor. But that kid wasn’t as smart as me. He wasn’t no dummy but he didn’t have the 155. The last brain scan put me at 130. That’s in the top 5 percent of the population, and still considered genius. Just not with a capital G.” (126). Usually, a person will only receive bits and pieces of the brain, but CyFi’s dads paid an excessive amount of money to get a whole and intact temporal lobe and it is obvious that CyFi loves and is proud of his dads by the way he talks about them. Something else he feels strongly about is stealing. Cy hates it and is adamant against even the very thought of stealing. And while it is strange just how strongly he feels about stealing, it is soon explained.
Freud, Sigmund. 1953-74. The Standard Edition of the Complete Psychological Works. 24 vols, trans. James Stachey. London: Hogarth.
Contemporary Psychology, 36, 575-577. Freud, S. (1961). The Species of the World. The Complete Works of Sigmund Freud. London: The Hogarths.
Freud, S. (1957b). Some character types met with in psychoanalytic work. In J. Strachey (Ed. & Trans.), The standard edition of the complete psychological works of Sigmund Freud (Vol. 14, pp. 309–333). London: Hogarth Press. (Original work published 1916)
In Shirley Jackson's novel "The Haunting of Hill House", there are numerous traces of the representation of the uncanny which was suggested by Sigmund Freud. In the story, the Hill House itself is an uncanny figure to the central protagonist, Eleanor, as it features as her mother which has an ambivalent nature as the meaning of the German word of `uncanny' itself. Moreover, the house also acts as a mirror reflecting her own image so that she can see herself by looking at the house, thus the house is actually an allegory of Eleanor's psychological condition and she is literally consumed by it in the end as the boundary between her and the house collapses. Besides, another protagonist, Theodora, is a double of Eleanor as she figures her opposite side which is her denied self and self-destructiveness while she also expresses the repressed feelings of Eleanor. These examples match with the concept of the uncanny which stresses on the uncanny effect of the `Doubling' and `Infantile complexes' . (Alison 32)
Man may look and act a certain way on the outside but could be completely the opposite in actuality. The nature of man consists of sin, which is concealed by a mask of goodness and virtue. Society teaches humans to mask the evil tendencies we have and to only convey their angelic sides to the world. The doppelgangers that these characters carry with them do not stay tucked away forever; rather they slowly show themselves through their actions and the decisions that they make. The suppressed half is the gateway to understanding the entire person. Without the good part in people, there is no bad; without the evil, one can never fully know the person as a whole.
When this story is viewed through Sigmund Freud’s “psychoanalytic lens” the novel reveals itself as much more than just another gory war novel. According to Sigmund Freud psychology there are three parts of the mind that control a person’s actions which are the id, ego, and superego. Psychoanalysis states that there are three parts of the human mind, both conscious and subconscious, that control a person’s actions. The Id, ego, and
Freud, S., Strachey, J., Freud, A., Rothgeb, C., & Richards, A. (1953). The standard edition of the complete psychological works of Sigmund Freud (1st ed.). London: Hogarth Press.
Wilson, Sarah. "Sigmund Freud and the oedipal complex." The Observer”. Guardian News and Media, 8 Mar. 2009. Web. 1 May 2014. <http://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2009/mar/08/sigmund-freud-oedipal-complex>.
A quick glance at Life of Pi and a reader may take away the idea that it is an easy read and a novel full of imagination, but take a Freudian view on the work and it transforms into a representation of the human psyche. Martel’s novel takes the reader on a journey with Pi as he struggles for his own survival. Pi experiences a breakdown of each component that makes up ones personality according to Freud throughout the novel. One by one id, ego and super ego both express a huge factor in Pi’s choices and emotions throughout his story. The readers are also introduced to an alternate ending to choose from. This alternate ending plays a key role in understanding how to view the novel through Freudian lenses. Freud’s theory of psychoanalysis clarifies many troubling issues raised in the novel Life of Pi.
Freud’s conception of the mind is characterized by primarily by dynamism, seen in the distribution of psychic energy, the interplay between the different levels of consciousness, and the interaction between the various functions of the mind. The single function of the mind, which brings together these various aspects, is repression, the maintenance of what is and what isn’t appropriately retained in the conscious mind.
The aim of this essay is to clarify the basic principles of Freud’s theories and to raise the main issues.
Before long, however, he faced patients whose disorders made no neurological sense. For example, a patient may have lost all feeling in one of their hands, but there is no sensory nerve that would numb their entire hand and nothing else when damaged. Freud’s search for a cause for such disorders set his mind running in a direction destined to change human self-understanding. He believed that some neurological disorders could have psychological causes. By observing patients with these disorders, Freud was led to his discovery of the unconscious (Myers & Dewall, pg# 573, 2015). Furthermore, he theorized that the lost feeling in the individual’s hand might have been caused by a fear of touching their