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    Wiem Belkhiria

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    Wonderland and Through the Looking-Glas (Penguin Class, 1096), and coded, with Adam Philips, Jobn Clare tn Comat (a904) Fs study ofthe poetry of Derek Minis ue to be pub lsd in 2004 ADAM. Priuiirs was formerly Prnelpal Child Paychotherpst at (Caring Cros Hospital in London. He's the anthor of several ks on pochomnlsstncuding On Ksing, Telling and Being Bored Davin’: Worms, Promises, Promise and Hoult’ Box SIGMUND FREUD The Uncanny Translated by oaviD McLaNTock swith an Introduction by nucH navcHTTON London PENGUIN BOOKS 2ovs ‘Only rarely does the payehoanalyt fee! impelled to engage in ss thetic investigations, even when aesthetics isnot restricted to the theory of berty, but described as relating to the qualities of our feeling, He works in other stata ofthe psyche and has litle to do ‘vith the emotional impulses that provide the usual subject matter of aesthetics, impulses that are restrained, inhibited in thelr aims fad dependent on numerous attendant circumstances. Yet now and then it happens that he has to take an interest in a particular area of festhetics, and then it is usually a marginal one that has been neglected inthe specialist iterature. ‘One such s the ‘uncanny. There sno doubt that this belongs to the realm of the frightening, of what evokes fear and dread. Its ‘equally beyond doubt that the word isnot always used ina clearly Gefinable sense, and so it commonly merges with what arouses fear in general. Yet one may presume that there exists a specifi affoctive nucleus, which justifies the use of a special conceptual term, One would like to know the nature ofthis common nucleus, ‘which allows ws to distinguish the ‘uncanny within the feld ofthe frightening. ‘On this opie we find virtually nothing inthe detailed accounts of sacsthetics, which on the whole prefer to concern themselves with ‘ur feelings forthe beautifil, the grandiose andthe attractive ~ that Isto say, with felings of a positive kind, their determinants andthe abjects that arouse them ~ rather than with their opposites, feelings of repulsion and distress. In the medico-psychologialIterature 1 know only one study on the subject, that of E Jentsch;' and this, ‘while rch in content i not ethaustive. True, [have to own that, for 9, Phe tnosony reson that are thd fo dine and inherent in th ines wo Ine i, Thive nt undertaken a though survey ofthe rate, expect the foreign erate, tha would berelornta he presen todos contusion, which i thts present othe ener wh no cain fo pry. eaich stress, a oe ofthe ics stenlant pon the sty ofthe unaniy,the fact tat people fer grey Det Senay othe Lnd of elo Idec the present wer must ed gully o exeptonalotsenes nth regu when set Aelsyof eng oa be more sport ang te sce he erence or became soja ed With anything at omeyed the impreon ofthe tc le mst et pt himsl nthe operate ting and out hms he vy of experiencing sone ofthe ue. Yet sch ies playa pera Inoter ares of secs os hence ne net or at eo, ie up hope of nding exes nich the ong ues vl Be unequivocal ackondeged by mt people ‘Ther ae than wo couse pe to eer we can investi ‘he santo content hat as sree Garan wor une th fof mich the nerest seman equal a Bagh te “oncanny” and “ere, but whieh efymlopealy corresponds to ‘untomely) as the langge Bas developed or we can semble whatever is abont poco and ngs, ese impresons, exper nos ad stations hat ves ina sene he nea and then goon tr den nature from wnt alte hen common ens ance tht bth tos oss le oe ‘Sine concson that he uc that specs oh fight _ sha oor back t at was nee Ha pl og Doe falar How cm be = er What contin the tir xn come uncanny and fghening wil emerge in what fll mst a that te preset dy aly gan vith colton of Indl ess sd hat he Edings wer ony ates crore Uy we ar tld by [Cran] ng wget he shall ‘orkin ror ore Unkeimlich is cacy the oposite of itch, hich, vor trout eo sens both someting shld be ghey 14 1 he Vaan presaly because unknown and unfair. But of ours the Tope ent tue nx eveything new and unfair gen fall on cn say that what is nv! ny well roe ighoning AE deny; ome dng that wre novel ar indeed gtening but By no means al Something mst be ded to he ove and the {tlanlr if isto become uneany ‘Onthe whole Jensch doesnt go bxyond relating the uncanny toe nwa and th unfair. For hm the essential condition or theemergene of sons ofthe uncanny intellectual weeny ‘Oneworld appos then, tht the uneay would aaa area inti peson wes unsure his may around he Bete vented te was inthe worl around him, tho oss kel be woe be id he abject ad ceurences in nea. “hs deiton clea notexaute,We wl herfore ty to go beyond 1 ere equation of the uncanny wit tbe unfair and sro Beto other lngunges: Bt the ictonares we consult ll ws using new ionly pemaps Because we ourses pen fool Inge nee we ga the inpreson tat any languages ack ‘ord for this partlarspcies othe Fghteing ‘Davi (KB Goorges, Kes Dock Lateiniches Worter snc 1898: welcher On [an eeriepac] ~ lous pectin uneimher Nacht [in the eee night hows) ~ intempesta note Ge (hom the ditonaes of Rost and Schenk oo, ort en TEncList (om th dictionaries of Lacs, Bellows, Fig and Musee Sanden) uncomfortable ness, lcm, da ancor ity, of awe) haunted, (fa perton): a repulse llr neve (Secs Vllate):inquilnt, rst lube, mason sie Seanist (Tollausen 859:sorpechow, deal gure igubre, nies allan and Portuguese seem to. make do with words that we ‘would cal periphrases. In Arabic and Hebrew the ‘uncanny’ merges ‘vith the ‘demonic’ andthe ‘gruesome. So let us return to German. In Daniel Sanders Worterbuch der us The thang Deutschen Sprache of 1860 we find the following information on the word hefnlich, which I reproduce herein ful drawing attention to certain passages (vol I, p- 729) Heimlich. a. (sb -keit, pl. en): 1, ako Heimeltch, hetmelig, ‘zum Hause gehtrig, nicht fremd, vertraut, Yahm, traut und trulch, anheimelnd et [belonging to ‘the house, no strange, familar, tame, dear and intimate, homely, ete!) 8) (obsolete) ‘cum Haus, zur Familie gehorig, oder: wle daz sgehteig etrachtt. vat. famaiars, "‘vertraut”” "belonging tothe hhouse, tothe Famly, oF regarded sbelangingtoitcf. Lat famiars, “familar” die eimlichen, ‘the members of the household’ der heimliche Rath, ‘the privy councillor, Genesis 41, 45 (Luther: Und rnannto hn don heinlichen Rat, ‘And called him the privy councillor AY: “And Pharaoh called Joseph's name Zaphnath-paaneah’, to which the following gles is supplied: ‘Which in the Coptic signifies A reveoler of escrets or The men to whom seorets are revealed; 2 Samuel 29, 2g (Luther: Und David machte thn zum heimlichen at, ‘And David made him privy councilor’; AV: ‘And David set him ‘over his guard (gloss: “or couneil”)] [Here follow references to Chronicles 12,25 and Wisdom 8, 4, where the word heimlch does not appear} The usual ite for this oliceisnow Geheimer Rath (see Gohelm 1). S00 also Hetmlcher. ') von Thioren zahm, sich den Menschen trulich anschlessen. Gest wild [of animals tame, associating familiarly with humans; antonyan: wild’, eg. Thier, die weder wild noch heiniich sind ete, “Animals thatare neither wild nr tame’ Eppendort, 88; Wilde Thier 50 man se heimlich und gewohnsam um de Leute aufeeuche, “Wild animals... that are brought up tame and socustomed to ‘bumans’ g2. So dese There con Jugen bel den Menschen erzogen, werden se gonz hlmitc,froundich ote, When thes litle animals arerearedamong humans they become quite domesticated, friendly, ‘te’ Stump 60S ete - Hence stil [inthe 18th contuy|: So hlmlich {at's (das Lamm) und fest aus meiner Hand, ‘t's 50 tame (the lamb) and eats out of my hand, Holt, Ein schoner,heimalicher see 16 1 Th Use 6) Voge Ble der Storch immer, ‘The stork emai beta tame all the ane Linck Se 38 Soe Hash (domes) ) teat, ach eben, das Wb tir Bei sung ets beigicer he sicher Sebutay i ds un Soon whice Haus enegend (intimate, csly hone ‘Sonangupleuan etngot que contntnent et, oomforabe teposs nd cre rte, Her encoed, comforts (C Gehouer irs hemlich noch Lande, wo de Freon ‘Sine Waldr ron? Are yon si ot ae the conn, hee Strugor ar pong yous ss” Als H. 539, wor hr shear haich a hn, She we ot together a ese with Tin, Brentano Webi, gu Aafia ohn hint Scat temp. lings dem eden richendo nd plischereden Walch Ons pect sy path Bose the pring, Inumarng babbling wend bre, Poter 47, Di Hine Teh dt Henthorn, To dey the wang ofthe homeland Gens it 57.80 ertraich dil habe {nett sh en Pltschenpyfndan ta cry for me fra sucht ad esl sp Cote 1g; Wir aco tn gum so iv goth nd hetich, We aged sas comfortable, prety so eoy and Kamel 5h tler Hamat uma von teen Schenken, In qt honelines ‘cloned within narow ben, all ter sorgchen Haw, {demu dam Wenn cn orggiche Hemlchit (oui tat) 2 scan orto Acre hose who kos ha Creme a petanthomelnss ones) wih the meagre of ‘tant Hartmann ns 18 Devo cher om Dm ett der Tim ont ars nso rome Mon or‘ the moe ffir id the an nw ape him, Who ta shor wie Before Dad Samed such stranger Kemer 4; De protetantncen Bester {ilen sch ict hetch nt dren Ktolachn Urethane, ‘The Protestant owners donot fel fame among thee Cac nye Kol ers Wann ein wird und sete Abend Salem an dene lence, Wen somes tang, nd the eens huh qe hastens ely t your cll, Tedge 250 uy The Uncanny Sil und Web und heimlich, als se sick !2um Ruhen einen Platz nur turinschon michten,’As qulet and dear and homely place as they could wish to rest at, Weland 1,244; Bs war dh gornichtheimlich abe, "He didnot feel tall at ease in all this’, 27,170, ete. — Also: Der Platz war so stil, so inson,s0 schaten-heinlich, “The spot ‘was so quiet, so lonely, so shadily restful’, Scherr Pilg. 1 170; Die ab nd zustromenden Fluthtclln, trumond und wiegeliedei- lich, The ebb and flow ofthe waves, dreamy and restfal as lay’ Komer, Sch. 3, 529, etc. Cf. sp. Unkeimlich. - Often trsllabc, ‘xp in Swabian and Swiss authors: Wie hetmelich’ wares dann Teo Abends wieder, als er zu Hause lag, “How “cosy” it eguin scomed talboin the evening a he ly at home’, Auerbach D. 1, 24g; Jn dom Haus et mire so heimelig ecesen, ‘have been so much at ease tn the hovse’, 4, gor; Die warme Stube, der heimelige Nochmittog, ‘The warm living room, the cosy afternoon’, Gothel, Sch. 227, 148; Das ist das wahre Hetmelis, wenn der Mensch so con Herzen fhe, whe weniger it, we gross der Horr it, "Tat is true ease, ‘when a man foes in his heart how Ute he s and how great the Lord is x47: Warde man nach und nach recht gomatlich und Ieimelg mit einaner, ‘Lite by ite they became very comfortable sand familiar with one another, U1, ag73 Dletauliche Heimelig. Ii, Cosy intimacy’, g80, 2, 8; Heimolicer wired os mir wohl nirgends werden als hier, "I shall probably feel nowhere more at home than hor’, 927; Pestalora 240: Was con ferneherkommt lebt geuts niche ganz heimelig(heimatlich, reundnachbarlich) ‘nit den Leuten, Whoover comes here from afar... certainly doos notlive wholly tease (on homely, rend, neighbouly tres) with the [local] people’. g2g: Die Hatt, wo er sonst o heimelig 0 fro / i Kreis der Seinen oft gesesen, ‘The cottage where once he hnad often sat o comfortably, o happily inthe circle of his family. Reithard 20; Da kiinge day Hom des Wackiers so hetmelig com Thurmda ladet seine Ssmone so gaxich, "Now sounds the watch- ‘man’s hor so fairly fom the tower; his voice now invites us 0 Ihositably, 4 Es schlaft sich do so lind und warmiso wunder- hhesmlig ein, There you can fll aslep so soft and warm, in such a wwonderflly estfulTashon', 23 ete, This spelling deserves to 28 1 The Uae ‘become universal, in order to protect this excellent word from ‘obsolescence through easy confusion with sense 2. Cf: ‘Die Zecks sind alle heimlich’ (sense 2). ‘Heimlich?... Was ver- stohen Sie unter heimlich?” ... ‘Nun ... e8 kommt mir mit ‘nen vor, oie mit einem zugegrabenen Brunnen oder einem ‘ausgetrockneten Teich. Man kann nicht dariber gehen, ohne dass es Einem immer iat, als kinnte da wider einmal Wasser ‘zum Vorschein Komen. ‘Wir nennen das unheimlich; Sie ‘hennen’s heimlich. Worin finden Sie denn, dass diese Familie cticas Verstecktes und Uncuverlisiges hat? ot. (The Zecks fare all mysterious.” “Mysterious?,.. What do you mean by “mysterious”? “Well, I have the same impression with them Thave with a buried spring or a dried-up pond. You can't ‘walk over thea without constantly feeling that water might reappear’ ‘We call that uncanny [“unhomely”); you call it ‘mysterious [homely]. So, what makes you think there’s something hidden and unreliable about the family?) ete, Gutakow Ra, 6. (2) €) (see 6) especialy Silesian: ‘choorfl, serene’, also of weather, see Adelung and Welnhold 2. verstckt, verborgen gebalten, so dass man Andre nicht davon ‘der darum wissen lassen snen verbergen will ‘concealed, kept hidden, so that others do not get to now oft or about it and its hidden from them’ Cf, Geheim 2, from which itis not abways| clearly distinguished, especialy inthe older language, asin the Bible, eg. Job 13,6, die heimiiche Weishet, the secret wisdom: AV: ‘the secrets of wisdom], 1g, 8 Gottes heimlichon Rat, "Goes secret counsel (AV: the seert of God]; 1 Cor, 7, der heilichen, terborgenen Weishet Gottes, the secret, hidden wisdom of God TAV. the wisdom of God in & mystery, even th hidden wisdom’ ‘et, slaty Heimlichket instead of Geheimnis, Matth 9, a5 ete. [Luther as verborgan war, ‘what was hidden!: AV "things which have been kept secret te: Heimlch (hinterJomandes Ricken) _Exwas thin, treiben, to do or engage in something secretly (behind ‘someone's back); Sich heilich dacon schleichen, ‘to steal secretly The Vasey avay’; Heimliche Zusammenknft, Verabredungen, ‘secret meet- ing, assignation’; Mic heimlicher Schadenfreude zuschen, to watch wth hidden glee; Hesmlich seufzen, einen, ‘to sigh, to weep, secretly; Hetmichthun, ale ob man etwas au vrbrgen hate, to at secretively, as fone had something to hide; Heimliche Liebchaft, Liebe, Stnde, ‘secret liaison, love, sin’; Hetmliche Orte (di der Wohistand 2u cerhallen gebicta) secret places (which propriety requires to be hidden)’, 1 Sam, 5, 6 (Luther (1545): und schlug Asiod und lle thre Grenze an heimlichen Orten, ‘and smote Ashdod sandal their boundaries in seret places [AV: and smote them with ‘emerods, even Ashdod andthe coars thereof"; Vulgte:etpercusit in secretion parte nattum, ‘and smote them inthe more secret pat ofthe buttocks" 2 Kings 10, 27: Dat heimliche Gemach (Abt), the private oom (privy) [AVY ‘draught house]; Wieland 5, 258, tc also: Der heiliche Stu, the secret stool, Zinkgr 2, 245 In Graben, in Heimlichkeiten werfen, to ast into pits, into hidden places’, 3,75; Rollenhagen Fr. 83 ete.-Fihre, helmlich or Laome- donidie Staten cor, Secretly led the mares out before Laomedon’, Burger 161 b ete. — Ebenso verstookt,hetmlioh, hinerlitig und boshaf gegen grausame Herren... wieofo, fe, thelnehmend und dlenstilig gegen don leldendon Freund, ‘ust a hidden, secretive, ‘roacherous and malicious towards cruel masters... as pen fee, sympathetic and obliging toward a suffering friend, Burmeister ¢ Ba, 157; Du soot mein heimlich Hellgstes noch wissen, You shall yet know what I secrtly hold most sarod’, Chamiso 4, 38 Die heimliche Kunst (der Zauber!), The secret art (of sorcery’ 3, 234; Wo dle offentiche Ventilation auftoren muss, fngt die heiliche ‘Machination an, ‘Where public ventilation bas to ceuse, secret ‘machination begins’, Forster, Br 2,195; Frehet i elie Poole hheimlich Verschworener, das lawte Feldgeschrot der affenich ‘Umuslzenden, “Freedom ls the quiet watchword of secret conspira- tors, the loud war-ry of open revolutionaries’, Goothe 4, 200; Ein heli, heimlich Wirken,‘A sacred, sore force at work’, 15; Ich habe ‘Warzelnfdie sind gar heimlich im tefen Bodewdbin ich gogrindet, ‘Thave roots that are very secret; am grounded inthe deep soil, 2, 109; Meine heimliche Tcke (vg) Heimtdcke), ‘My secret craft (of. 1 The Uncanny compound noun combining the adjective andthe noun ofthe previous phrase}, 30, 344: Empfingt ers nich offenbar und ewisenhaft, 20 mag eres hesmlich und gewissenlosergreien, ‘Ihe {does not receive it openly and conscentionly, he may seize it Secretly and without conscience, gg, 22; Llssheimlich und gehetm- lscollachromatsche Fernrdhrezsammensetzon, ‘Had achromatic telescopes constricted covertly and secretly, 975; Von nun an, will ich, sf nichts Heimliches ! mah unter uns, From now on I desire that there shall be nothing secret botween us, Shiller g6gb. Jem= ‘andes Heinlichketen entdecken, offenbaren, verrathen, “To dis- cover, revel, betray someone's serets's Heimlichketen inter ‘meinem Biioken zu brouen, To concoct secrets behind my back, ‘Alexis, H. 2, ,168;2 meiner Zeit /beftos man sich der Heimlchket, “in my day one studied secrecy’, Hagedom 3, g2; Die Heilchkett tind das Gepuschele unter dor Hond, Secrecy and underhand deal- ings, Immermann, M. 3. 289; Der Heinlichkit (des verborgenen Golds) unmahtigen Bann kann nur die Hand der Einsichtlosen, “The powerless spell ofthe mystery (of hidden gold) ean be undone ‘only by the hand of understanding, Novalis 2, 69; Sag on, wo du sie ‘orbit, in welches Ortesveracwoiegener Heinlichktt, Say, ‘where do you hide them, inthe unspoken secrey of what place?” Schiller 495; Ihr Bienen, do tht knetet der Heimiichketen Schloss (Wachs zum Siegeln), ‘You bees, who knead the lock of secrets (wax for sealing)’, Teck Cymb, 3, a: Erfahren in sltnenHeinlichteiten| (Cauberkinsten), “Experienced in rare mysteries (magie arts). ‘Schlegel Sh, 6, 108 ete. cf: Geheimnis, Lessing 10:29 ft For compounds see 1 (c), especially the antonyim formed with Une ‘unbehagliches, banges Graven errogend [arousing uneasy fearful hortor'} Der schier thm unkeimlch, gospenstisch erschien ‘Which seemed to him utterly uncanny, ghostly, Chamisso g, 928; Der Nacht unheinliche, bange Stunden, "The eerie, earful hours ofthe night, 4.148; Mir war chon lang” unhellich, jo graulich zu Muthe, Foralongtime Thad an uncanny feeling. indeed a feeling of horror, 2a; Nan fingts man, unheimlich u werden, ‘Now [arn beginning to fel uneasy’, Goethe 6,330; Empfindet ein unheinliches Grouen a Tha cong “Feels an uncanny horror’, Heine, Verm. 151: Uneimlich und starr ‘oie ein Steinbild, "Uncanny and motionless ke astoe statue’, Res, 2,10;Denunheimlichn Nebel, Haarrauch geetssen, ‘Theeer mist, called haze (orblight.,Immermann, M,3, 2993 Des blastn angen sind unheimlich und Brauen Gott ess was Schlimmes. “These pale youths are uncanny concocting God knows what mischet, Laub, 119; Unheimlich nennt man Alles, was im Geheimnis, im Ver- orgenen ... bleiben sollte und hervorgetreten ist, ‘Uncanny is what one calls everything that was meant to remain secret and hidden and has come into the open’, Schelling 22,649, ete = Das Gitliche2u cerllen, mit ener gewissen Unheimlicht zu tumgeben, To vel the divine and surround it with an aura ofthe ‘uncanny’ 638, ete ~ Unketmlch is rare asthe antonym of sense 2); (Campe lists it, but with no illustrative quotation. FForus the most interesting fact to emerge from this long excerpt is {hat among the various shades of meaning that are recorded forthe ‘word heiilich theze & one in which i merges wit its formal fntonym, unheimlich, so that what is called heimlich becomes lunheimlich. As witness the passage from Gutakows “We all that ‘unheimlich; you call t heimlich? This reminds us that this word Ieimlick is nat unambiguous, but belongs to two sets of ideas, which sre not matully contraditory, but ver diferent from each other ~ the one relating to what is familiar and comfortable, the other to what is concealed and kept hidden, Unheimlich isthe antonym of heimlich oly in the latter’ fst senso, not in its second, Sanders suggests no genetic cnanection between the two senses. On the ‘other hand, ou attentions selzed by Schellings remark, which sys something quite new - something we certainly did not expect — bout the meaning of wnheimick, namely thatthe term ‘uneanny” (unheimlick) applies to everything that was Intended to remain secret, hidden avy, and has come into the open, Some ofthe doubts that ariso here are cleared up by the data in the German Dictionary of Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm (Deutsches Worerbuch, Lega 1877 Vi, 87.) 1 he Ua Helis a snd a, eerncus, ocular Mile High German fetal, heh In a sornewhat diffrent sens: eit mir heilich, ‘fel wel fee fom fea, (3) het is alo used of place that i Fre of hot inucnces »-875:8) fair endl, confng 4 Starting from the homely and the domestic, there isa farther development towards the notion of ‘something removed from the eyes of strangers, hidden, secret, This notion i extended in a number of ways.» 876: links omsce ligt in mate hilich im gehae ‘Schl, Wil Tell (otholetby tho ako las a mend hidden among te trees) ‘Uncommon in modem usages the combiaton ofheilich with, ‘verb denoting conooalment: Fr eerbirgt mich helmlich in seinem peel (Psalm 27,5), [AV: ‘In the secret of his tabernacle shall he hide me]. Secret places on the human body, the pudenda: welche Lente nicht sturben, de wurden geschlogen an heimlichen érten, {Samuel ,12:"Those who did not die were smitten in secret places’, IAV-"And the men that died not were smitten with the emerods]* ‘©) Officials who dispense important advice on aff of state that fs to be kept seeret are called heimliche rathe prisy counellors) in modem usage the adjective is replaced by geheim (qv): Pharao rennet thn (Joseph) den heirichen rath, ‘Pharaoh narned mn the privy councillor, Gen. 4, 45 'P 878: 6. heilich as ured of knowledge, mystical, allegorical: heimliche Bedeutung (secret meaning), mysticus, dicinus, occult, fguratus. ‘578: in the fllowing heimlich i used dlferently for what is ‘withdrawn from nawledge, unoonselous ‘bat then himlich also means locked sway, insertable’ cy he ean erst cel? he tron nicht, _frchen des Fricondere hich geht. ‘Schl, Wallteine Lager, sane 2 (Do yor se? They do not rst ws, thy faethe nara face of the iedlnder [e. Walenta.) {9 The notion of the hidden and the dangerous, which appears inthe lst section, undergoes a further development, 50 that heimlich acquires the sense that otherwise belongs to tunheémlich (formed from heimlich, sb, col 874: mir ist zu zeten tole dem menschen der in nacht wandelt und an gespenser glaub, jeder kel it hm hesioh und schaverhafiT sometimes fel like ‘a sleepwalker who believes In ghosts: every comer seems to him ‘erie and frightening), Klinger, Theater, 298. Heimlich thus becomes increasingly amblvalnt, until it finaly merges with its antonyzn unheimlich. The uncanny (dae Unhein- lich, "the unhomely) isin some way a species of the familiar (das Heimlich, ‘the homely) Let us relate this finding, which stil has to be explained, o Scheling’s definition ofthe uncanny. Seperate Investigations of cases ofthe uncanny will enable ws to make sense ofthese hints, at Il Ife now go onto review the persons and thing, the impressions, processes and situations that can arouse an especially strong and istinet sense of the uncanny in us, we must clearly choose an fpproprate example to start with, E. Jentsch singles out, as an taxtellent ease, ‘doubt as to whether an apparently animate object really salve and, conversely, whether a lifeless object might not perhaps be animate’, In this connection he refers tothe impressions nade on us by sausvork figures, ingeniously constructed dolls and ‘automata, To these he adds the uncanny effect produced by epileptic fits and the manifestations of insanity, because these arouse in the ‘onlooker vague notions of automatic mechanical ~ processes that may lie hidden behind the Familiar image ofa ving person. Now, ‘while not wholly convinced by the authors arguments, we wil take them a a starting point for onr own investigation, because he goes fon to remind us of ane waiter who was more successful than any other at creating uncanny effets, ‘One ofthe surest devices for producing slightly uncanny effets through storytelling” writs Jentsch, sto leave the reader wonder ing whether a particular fgure sa ral person or an automaton, and to do so in sucha way that his attention isnot focused directly on| the meerainty, lest he should be prompted to examine and settle the matter at once, for im this way, as we have sud, the special ‘emotional eect can exly be dissipated. E.T.A. Hoffmann often ‘employed this psychologieal manoctvre with success in hisimaginat- ‘ve writings” “This observation, which is undoubtedly correct, refers in partcw- lar to Hoffiann's stony "The Sand-Man’, one ofthe "Night Pieces! oss, The conn (vol. 5 of Hoffman's Gesamte Werke in Grisobach's edition), from which the doll Olimpia found her way into the fist act of Offenbach’s opera The Tales of Hofmann. I must say, however — and I hope that mast eaders ofthe story wll agre with me ~ that the motif ofthe seemingly animate dell Olimpia s by no means the only one responsible forthe incomparably uncanny effect of the story, or even the one to which itis prinipally due, Nor is this effect tenhanoed by the fact thatthe author himself gives the Olimpia episode a slightly satiscal twist using i to make fun ofthe young ‘man's overvaluation ofleve. Rather, is another motif thats central tothetale, tae one that givesititsnameandis repeatedly emphasized at erueal points ~ the motif ofthe Sand-Man, who tars ut chil- dren's yes. ‘student named Nathaniel, with whase childhood memories this fantati tale opens, is unable, forall is present happiness, o banish certain memeries connected with the mysterious and tersfying ‘death of his much-loved father. On certain evenings his mother ‘would send the children to bed early withthe warning ‘Tho Sand- “Man is coming” And sure enough, on each such oceason the bey would hear the hea tread of visitor, with whom his father would ‘then spend the whole evening, Its true that, when asked about the Sand-Man, the boy's mother would deny that any such person ‘existed, except as a gure of speech, ut a nursomatd was able to ‘pve him more tangible information: He is bad man who comes to tluldcen when they won't goto bed and throws a handful of sand in thelr eyes, so that their eyes jump out of their heads, all bleeding. He then throws their eyes in his bag and takes them off to the halé-moon as fod for his children. These children sit up therein their nest; they have hooked beaks like owls, and use them to peck up the eyes ofthe naughty litle boys and girs.” ‘Although litle Nathaniel was od and sensible enough to dismiss such grisly detls about the Sand-Man, fear ofthis igure took rot fever in hin, He resolved to find out what the Sund-Man looked lke, and one evening, when another visitation was due, he hid in his father's study. He recognized the visitor asa lawyer named Cop- pelus, a repulsive person of whom the children were aia when 6 1 The Uncomy Ihe occasionally ame to lunch. He now identified Coppetins with the dreaded Send+-Man, In the remainder of this scene the author Teaves us in doubt as to whether we are dealing with the initial delirium ofthe pani-stricken boy or an account of even! that must be taken as real within the world represented in the tale. The boy's father and the visitor busy themselves ata braier that emits glowing flames. Hearing Coppelius shout ‘Eyes here! eyes here!” the litle ‘eaesdropper lets outa seream and reveals his presence. Coppelius Seizes hin and is about to drop red-hot grains of coal in is eyes and then throw these into the braler. The father egs him to spare his son's eyes. This experience ends with the boy falling nto a deep ‘swoon, followed by a long illness. Whoever favours rationalise interpretation ofthe Sand-Man sound toasribe the chil'sfantasy to the continuing influence ofthe nursemalds account. Instead of trains of sand, red-hot grains of oa are tobe throw into the hl’ tyes, but in ether ease the purpose isto make them jump out of his head. A year later, during nother visit by the Sand-Man, the father is killed by an explosion in bis study, and the Lawyer Coppelus ‘lsappears fom the tow without trace, Tater, asa student, Nethniel thinks he recognizes this fearful {igure from his childhood inthe person of Giuseppe Coppola, an itinerant Rtallan optician who haw weather-gassesinthe university town. When Nathaniel declines to buy one, Coppola sys, So, no ‘weather gas, no weathers! I've got lovely eyes too, lovely eyes” [Nathaniel is at fist terified, but his terror is allayed when the eyes hae is offered tur out to be harmless spectacles. He buys pocket spyelss from Coppola and usestto look int the house of Profesor Spalanzan, om the other side of the street, where he catches sight ‘of Olimpia, the profeser’s beautiful, butstrangely silent and motion Tess daughter, He soon falls so madly in love with her that he forgets his wise and levelheaded fancée, Clara. But Olimpia i an tutomaton, for which Spalanzini has mado the clockwork and in| ‘which Coppola ~ the Sand-Man - has set the eyes. The student ‘comes upon the two quarreling over thelr handiwork, The optician hs carried off the eyeless wooden del: the mechani, Splanzani, picks up Olimpia's bleeding eyes from the for and throws them at The theca "Nathaniel, from whom be says Coppola has stolen them. Nathan! fs seized by fresh acoss of madness. In his delichum the memory ofhiefather's death compounded with this new impression: Hurry hurry = bury! ~ ring of fie ~ rng of fire! Spin round, ring of Bre = quick ~ quick! Wooden dal, bury, lovely wooden dell, spin round", Whereupon he burs himself at the profesor, Olimpia’ supposed father and tres to strangle him Heving recovered from a long, serious illness, Nathaniel at lst seems to be cured, He finds his Banoée again and plans to marry her. One dy they are out walking in the town with her brother. The talltowerof the townhall eastsa huge shadow over the marketplace. Clara suggest that they go up the tower together while her brother remains below. At the top, her attention Is drawn to the curious sight of something moving along the tect. Nathaniel examines this through Coppola's spas, which e finds in his pocket. Again he fs seized by madness and, uttering the words ‘Wooden dol spin round! he tres to cast the girl down from the tower. Her brother, hearing er sreams, comes to her rescue and quickly escortsher to the ground, Up above, the madman runs around shouting ut ‘Ring of fre, spin round’ ~ words winose origin is already familar to ts. Conspicous among the people gathering below isthe lawyer CCoppelius, who has suddenly reappeared. We may asuame that it twas the sight of his approach that brought on Nathaniels fit of ‘madness, Some of the crow want to goup the tower and overpower the madman, but Coppelivs says laghingly: Just walt. Hell come down by hinslé” Nathaniel suddenly stnds stl catches sight of ‘Coppel nd, with ary’ of ‘Yes! Lovely eyes lovely eyes, throws himself over the parapet. Momentslaterhe islyingon the pavement, Is head shattered, andthe Sand-Man has vanished in the milling crowd, ‘This brief summary will probably make it clear beyond doubt that in Hoffmann’ tale the sense ofthe uncanny attaches directly to the figure of the Sand-Man, and therefore tothe idea of being robbed of one's eyes ~ and that intellectual uncertainty, as Jentsch ‘understands i, has nothing to do with this effect. Uncertainty as to ‘whether an objects animate or inanimate, which we were hound to 18 1 The Uncaeny acknowledge in the case of the doll Olimpia, i quite irelevant in the ease of thie more potent example ofthe uncanny. Is tru that the author intlly creates a ind of uncertainty by preventing us ~ certainly not unintentionally fom guessing whether hei going to take us lato the real world or into some fantastic word of his ov choosing, He is of course entitled to do elther, and if he chooses, for instance, to st the action in a word a which spirits, demons and ghosts play a part as Shakespeare does in Hamlet, Macbeth tnd Jultas Caesar and, rather differently, in The Tempest and A ‘Midiummer Night's Dream, we must yield to his choice and treat his posted world as if t were real for as long as we submit to his spell But in the course of Hoffmann’s tale this uncertaity disappears; it becomes clear thatthe author wants us too to look ‘through the spectacles or the spylass ofthe demon optician, and ‘even, pethaps, that he has looked Qhrough such an instrument himself. For, afterall, the conclusion ofthe tale makes it ler that the optician Coppola really the lewyer Coppelis! and so also the Sand-Man. "There is no longer any question of telloctual uncertainty: we Snow now that what we ate presented with are not figments of a ‘maciman’s imagination, behind which we, with our superior ration- ality, can recognize the sober truth ~ yet this lear lnowledge in to say diminishes the impression of the uncanny. The notion of Intellectual uncertainty inno way helps us to understand this ‘nanny effect. ‘On the other hand, psychoanalytic experience reminds us that some cildren havea terrible fear of damaging a Ising their eyes. Many retain this amet nto adult if and fear no physica injury 0 ‘much as one tothe eye. And thre isa common saying that one wl “guard something ike the apple of one's eye. The study of dreams, fantasies end myths has taught us also that aniety about one's yes, the fear of going blind, i quite often a substitute forthe fear of castration, When the mythical criminal Oedipus blinds himself this tsmerelya mitigated form ofthe penalty of castration, the only one that befits him according othe lx talionis. Taking up a ratonalistie stance, one may seek to reject the idea that the fear of damaging the x39 Tha Uncen eyes canbe trad buck to the fear of castration; one fd Cctetndable tat so pei an nga a the ey shou be spared commento sme ndec,one cx go ater snd cin that no dap tery and 90 oer signe ie hi the tar f esto. Yet thi des worst a he bate tention between he ee andthe male eb that manited increas tase myths nr ean ctr the fpreson thts play Soong and cbse emation i arsed y he threat fling the sel erin and that 8 hs emotion ha fit gives sch mone othe en of ling other organ. Say Femaling debt vanes once one as at the data of he “asraton compl om anon of art tent eed haan nent pat it ly tei etl ‘Moraer oid not ade any opment of he ryehonayc si to appea to Hlfnans stay ofthe Sind sopor of the contin tat ero the eer i smcting independent of the carat comple, For why ts ere te es ley Tne ere th death fhe father? Wy dos be Sandan tings appear aa darptor foe? He entrengs he fran Sten om i ante and robe brother is best fends Be esr the secon bjt of hs oe the beau dl Opa, tev desi odes when ar wench nee tod th oe aon oe ly nite. These nd any ther fetes of the te apes any nd seeing oe jes the velton betwen fear or he texan ear xan, bt they Decne mening son a he Sad Man e replaced by the deal fathers bands eration eespected™ ‘Werwollthrefore votre to trace ek th ean element inthe Suntan tn tess cased by the inf csraon ee Tet at soon as concrete Ke of aserbing the racer ote ses a he ncn oan infer uh thre cnot help tying dere oer examples of te ssn From the sme source." San Maso conti the ot of the appuenty animate dol, which as singed xt by Jet tecong to hi we have party fenrble condone for everting Relngs ofthe weanny If tle sneer i 1 The Urea aroused as to whether something is animate or inanimate, and ‘whether the Ufless bears an excessive likeness to the living, With dolls, of course, we are not far from the world of childhood. We recal that children, in thei early games, make no sharp distintion| ‘between the animate and the inanimate, and that they are especially {ond of treating their dollsasithey wore alive. Indeed, one occasion ally hears a woman patient tll how, at the age of eight, she was still convinced tha her dolls were bona to come to life she looked at ‘hem in certain way, a intently as possible. Here too, then, the infantile factor is easly demonstrated. But, oddly enough, The Sand-Man' involved the evocation of an old childhood fea, whereas there is no question offer inthe ease of ving dol: hire are not afraid oftheir dlls coming to life - they may even want them to. Here, then, the sense ofthe uncanny would derive not from an infant fear, but from an infantile wish, or simply from an infantile Dolio. This sounds lke a contradiction, but posly itis just a complication, which may further oar understanding later on, E. T. A. Hoffinann is the unrivalled master of the uncanny’ in literature. His novel Die Elesiere des Teufels (The Elsire of the Decl] presents whole complex of motifs to which one is tempted to asribe the uncanny effect ofthe story. The content is too vich and insieate for us to venture upon a summary. At the end ofthe book, when the reader finally lars of the presuppositions hitherto ‘withheld, which underlie the plot, this leads not to his enlighten ‘ment, but to his utter bewilderment. The author ha piled up too much homogeneous material, and tis is detrimental, not to the impression made by the whole, but to its intelligibility. One must content oneself with selecting the most prominent of those motifs that produce an uncanny effect, and see whether they too can reasonably be traced back to infantile sources. They invalve the Idea of the “double (the Doppelganger, in all its nuances and ‘manifestations ~ that i o say, the appearance of persons who have tobe regarded as identical because they lookalike, This relationship {s intensified by the spontaneous transmision of mental proceses {romone ofthese persons tothe other what we would alltlepathy = 30 that the one becomes co-owner of the other's knowledge, The Uncanny ‘emotions and experience. Moreover, «person may identify himself with another and so become unsure of his true self, oF he may substitte the other’ self for his own, Te self may thus be dupl- cated, divided and interchanged. Finally thre isthe coastantreeur- rence ofthe same thing, the repetition ofthe same facial features, the same characters, the same destinies, the sime misdeods, even the same names, through successive generations. ‘The mot ofthe double ha boen treated in detail in a study by (©. Rank? This work explores the connections tht link the double with miror-images, shadows, guardian spirits, the doctrine ofthe soul and the fear of death, I also throws a good deal of light on the surprising evelution ofthe motif sll The double was originally an insurance agunst the extinction of the self or, as Rank pute i, “an energetic denial ofthe power of deat’, and it seems key that the “immortal” soul was the frst double ofthe body. The invention ‘of sch doubling a5 adefonce agunst annihilation ha a counterpart in the language of dreams, which is fond of expressing the idea of castration by duplicating or multiplying the genial symbol Inthe ciulzaton of ancent Egypt, it besame a spur to artists to form mages of the dead in durable materials, But these ides arose on the sol of boundless selFlove, the primordial narcissism that dominates the mental lif ofboth the child and primitive maa, and ‘when this phaseis surmounted, the meaningofthe'daube’ changes having once been an assurance of immortality, it becomes the ‘uneanny harbinger of death, ‘The concept of the double nood not dlsappoar along with this primitive narcissism it may acquire a new content from later stages Inthe evolution ofthe ego. By slow degrees a special authority takes shape within the ego; this authority, which is able to confront the et of the ego, performs the function of self-observation and slf- criticism, exercises a kind of pychicl censorship, and so becomes ‘what we know as the ‘consclence’ In the pathological cate of delusions of observation it becomes isolated, spt of from the eg, and disoeaible tothe lnician. The existence of such an authority, which ean treat the ret of the ego as an objoct~ the fact tha, in ‘other words, mani capable of slf- observation ~ makes it possible The Uncen to imbue the old idea ofthe double witha new content and attribute a mumber of features to it ~ above all, those which, in the light of self-eiicism, sem to belong tothe old, superannuated naeisism of primitive times Yet it isnot oly this content ~ which is objectionable to self criticism ~ that ean be embodied in the Aigure of the double: in| ‘edition there areal the possiblities which, had they been realized, ‘might have shaped our destiny, and to which our imagination stil clings, all the strivings ofthe ego that were frastrated by adverse ‘lreumstances ll the suppressed ses of volition thet fostered the {luson offre wil? However, after considering the manifest motivation behind the figure ofthe double, we have to own that none ofthis helps us understand the extraordinary degree of uncanniness that attaches toi and we may add, drawing upon our knowlege of pathological ‘mental process, that none of this content could explain the defens- Ive urge that eects from the ego as something alien, Its uncanny quality can surely derive only from the fact that the double i a creation that belongs to primitive phase In our mental develop ‘ment, a phase that we have surmounted, in which it admittedly had ‘more benign sigifcaee, The double has become an object of terror, just as the gods become demons after the collapse oftheir calt~ theme tht Heine treats in Die Gott im Ex ["The Gods in Ele ‘The other disturbances of the ego that Hoffmann exploits in his writings are easy to judge in accordance withthe pattern set by the tnotf ofthe double, They involve a rking back to singe phases in the evalution ofthe sense of self, regression to times when the ego hhad not yt clearly st itself of against the world ouside and from ‘others, I believe that these motif are partly responsible for the impression ofthe uncanny, though tis not easyto isolate and specify the share they have init “The factor ofthe repetition of the same thing will perhaps not bbe acknowledged by everyone as a source of the sense of the ‘uncanny. According to my own observations it undoubtedly evokes such feeling under parscular conditions, and in combination with The Uncanny particular creumstances ~ a feeling, moreover, that recalls the helplesmess we experience in certain dream-states. Strolling one hot summer afternoon through the empty and to me unfamiliar streets ofa small Ttallan tow, I found myself in a district about wwhose character I could not long remain in doubt. Only heavily ‘made-up women were tobe seen atthe windows ofthe ite houses, and [hastily left the narrow stroet at tho next turing. However, ffter wandering about for some time without asking the way, ‘suddenly Found myself back in the same street, where my presence ‘begun to attract attention. Once more I hurted avy, only to return ‘there again bya diferent routo. Iwas now seized bya focing that 1 ‘an only deseribe as uncanny, and Iwas gla to find my way back to the piazza that I had rooenty left and refrain from any further ‘voyages of discovery. Other situations that share this feature ofthe “unintentional return sith ehe one Ihave Just described, but differ ‘romitin other respects, may nevertheless produce the same feeling ‘of helplesess, the same sense of the uncanny. One may, for Instance, have lst one’s way in the woods, perhaps after being ‘overtaken by fog, and, despite all one's efforts to ind a marked or familiar path, one comes back again and again to the same spot, ‘which one recognizes by «particular physical feature, Or one may be groping around In the darkin an unfamiliar room, searching for the door or the lightsviteh and repeatedly colliding withthe same ploce of furniture ~ a situation that Mark Twain has transformed, ‘admittedly by means of grotesque exaggeration, into something frresitiby comic. Tn another set of experiences we have no dificult in recognizing that sis only the factor of unintended repetition that transforms ‘what would otherwise seem quite harmless into something uncanny ‘and forcesus to entertain the ide ofthe ftefl and the inescapable, ‘when we should normally speak of ‘chance’. There is certainly ‘nothing remarlable, for instance, about depositing a garment in a cloakroom and belng given aticket with certain number on it~ say 62 — of about finding thatthe cabin one has een allocated bears {his mumber, But the impression changes if these two events, of no consequence in themieves, come close together, so that one ue 1 The Uncen ‘encounters the number 62 several times in one day, andifone then ‘observes that everthing involving a number ~ addresses, hotel rooms, rallvay cariages, ec. lnvaably has the same one, a least ‘part ofthe whole, We find this ‘uncanny’ and anyone who isnot steeled gains the lure of superstition wil be inlined to acord a secret significance tothe persistent reeurrenee of this one number = to see i, for instance, a8 a pointer to his alloted life-span, Or suppose one is occupied with the writings of FE (vald] Hering the treat plystologe, and that within tho space of a few days one ecives letters from tvo people named Hering, posted in different countries, lthough ane has had no previous dealings with anyone ofthat name, An Ingenious scientist has recently sought to show that such occurrences aro subject to certain laws ~ which would necessary remove the impression ofthe uncanny. Iwill not venture {opronounce on whether he has suceeded” iow the uncanny element in the recurrence of the same thing ‘can be detived from infantile psychology is a question that I can ‘only touch upon here; I must therefore sefer the reader to another study now awatting publication, which teats the subject in deta, ‘utina different context. In the unconscious mind we ean recognize the dominance of a compulsion to repeat, which proceeds from instinctual impulses, This eompulsion probably depends on the essential nature of the drives themseles. It is strong enough to ‘override the pleasure principle and lend a demonic character to ‘certain aspectsof mental life; itis clearly manifestin the impulses of small culdren and dominates part ofthe course taken by the oychounalysisof victims of neurosis The foregoing discussions have fll prepared us for the fact that anything that ean remind us ofthis Jner compulsion to repeat is perceived as uneanny. ‘But now, [dink ies time to turn away from these relationships, ‘which ae in any case difficult to pass judgement on, and seek ont ‘unequivocal eases of the uncanny, which may be expected, once ‘analysed, to determine the validity of our hypothesis once and for all in Schille’s poem Der Ring des Polykrates ("The Ring of Poly- rates’) the guest tums away in horror because he sees his fiends us, ‘every wish instantly fulled and his every care at once removed by {ite, His host as become ‘uncanny’ The reason he himself gives ~ that whoever i excessively Fortunate must fear the envy of the gods = sill seems obscure tou, its meaning being veiled in mythology, So let us tako an example fom a much simpler setting. Inthe case history ofa patient suffering from obsessional neurosis recorded that be had once visited a byropathic institution and found that his health improved grealy. However, be was sensible enough to attibute this improvement not to the healing properties of the ‘wate, but tothe locaton of his room, which was next tothe office ‘of avery kind nurse So, on returning for asooond vist, he asked for the same room, only tobe told that it was aleady occupied by an ‘ld gentleman. Whereupon e gave vent to his annoyance withthe wards, Then he should be struck dead” A fortnight later the old gentleman did suffer a stroke. My patient found this an “uncanny” ‘experience, The impression ofthe uncanny would have been even stronger fa much shorter interval had lapsed between his uttering the words and the untoward event that followed, or if he had been able to report numerous similar experiences, Infact, he was never fat alos for such corroboration. Indeed, not only this patient, but every obsessional neurotic [have studied, could tll similar stories boat themselves. They were not at all suprised when, perhaps after a long interval, they ran Into someone about whom they had only just been thinking They would regularly get a letter by the morning post frm a friend of whom they had sid, ony the night before, “He's not been heard of forages In articular, accidents and deaths rarely happened vathout having fitted through their rminds a short while before. They would describe ths phenomenon 1m the most modest terms, claiming to have ‘presentiments’ that ‘usualy came true. ‘One ofthe uncanniest and most widespread superstitions is fear of the ‘evil eye, which has been thoroughly investigated by the Hamburg oelistS. Seligmann? It appears that the source ofthis fear has never been in doubt. Anyone who possesses something precious, but fragile, is afraid of the envy of others, to the extent that he projects on to them the envy he would have felt in their ue 1 The Urea place. Such emotions are betrayed by looks," even fthey are denied ‘rerbal expression, and when a person is prominent owing to certain ‘aking characteristics, especially if these are ofan undesirable ind, people are ready to believe that his envy will each a particular Intensity and then convert this intensity nto effective action. What fs feared is thus a covert intention to harm, and onthe strength of certain indicetions it is assumed that this intention can command the necessary force. “These last examples ofthe unesnny depend on the principe that have elle the omnipotence of thoughts aterm suggested to me bya patient, We can no longer be in any doubt about where we now stand. The analysis of cates ofthe uncanny has led us back to the ‘ld animistic view ofthe universe, a view characterized by the idea ‘hat the world was peopled with human spirits, by the narcissistic ‘overrating of one's wn mental processes, by the omnipotence of ‘and the technique of magi dat relied on it, by the ats bation of carefully graded magical powers (mane) to allen persons and things, and by al the inventions wth which the unbounded harcsssm ofthat period of development sought to defend itself ‘gainst the unmistakable sanctions of reality Tt appears that we have tll in the course of our individual development, been through & ‘phase corresponding tothe animistic phase inthe development of rimitve peoples, that this phase dd not pass without Ieaving behind In us residual traces tht can still make themselves fel, and that ‘everything we now find ‘aneanny meets the criterion that itis inked “with these remnants of animistic mental activity and prompts them toespress themselves." ‘This is now an appropriate point at which to introduce two observations in wich I shoul keto set down the essential content ‘ofthis short study. Inthe fst place, if psychoanalytic theory i right fn asserting tat every affct arising from an emotional impulse ~ of “whatever kind is converted ito fear by being repressed it fllows that among those things tat are fel to be frightening there must be one group in which it can be shown thatthe frightening element {s something that has been repressed and now returns. This species ofthe frightening would then constitute the uncanny, and it would ur The tree be immaterial whether it was itself originally frightening or arose from another alec. In the second place, if this really is the secret nature the uncanny, we can understand why German usage allows the familiar (das Heinliche, the “homely to sith to its opposite, the uncanny (das Unheimliche, the ‘unholy’ (p. x34), for this ‘uncanny element i actully nothing new o strange, but something ‘that was long familiar to the psyche and was estranged from it only through belng repressed, The link with repression now iluminates Schelling’ definition ofthe uneanny as ‘something that should have remained hidden and has come into the open’ ‘Te now only remains for us to test the insight we have arived at by trying to explain some other instances ofthe uneanny. ‘To many people the seme of the uncanny is represented by anything to do with death, dead bodies, revenants, spirits and ghosts. Indeed, we have heard that in some modera languages the German phrase cin unheimliches Haus{'n uncanny house’} ean be rendered only by the priphrasis ‘a haunted house’. We might in fact have ‘begun our investigation with this example of the uncanny ~ perhaps the mest potent ~but we did not do so because here the uncanny i too much mined up withthe graesomeand party vera by it Yet, In hardly any other sphere ba our thinking and feeling changed so ile since primitive times or tho old been so well preserved, under ‘thin veneer, asia our relation to death, Two factors account for this lack of movement: the strength of our original emotional reactions and the uncertainty of our scenic knowledge, Biology thas so far been unable to decide whether death sth nocessary fate ‘of every living creature or simply a regular, but pethaps avoidable, ‘contingency within fe self. tis tre that in textbooks on loge the statement et ‘ll men must de’ passes for an exemplary genera proposition, bt i is abvious to no one; our unconscious stil as tunreceptive ae ever to the Idea of our own mortality. Religions tontinue to dispute the significance ofthe undeniable fact of ind- ‘vidual death and to post an afterlife. Tho state authorities think they feannot sustain moral order among the living if they abandon the ‘notion that lif on earth wl be ‘corrected! by a better if hereafter. Placards in our big ties advertise lectures that are meant to instruct os usin how to make contact with the sous ofthe departed, and there {sno denying that some ofthe finost minds and sharpest thinkers ‘among our men of science have concluded, especialy towards the fend of their oom lives, that there Is ample opportunity for such contact ince nearly al of ts sil ehik no differently from savages fn this subject, i s not surprising thatthe primitive fear of the ‘dead is still so potent in us snd ready to manifest itself if given ‘ny encouragement. Moreover, itis probably sill informed by the fold iden that whoever des becomes the enemy of the survivor, {nent upon carrying him off with him to share his new exstonce, Given this unchanging attitude to death, one might ask what has ‘become of repression, which s necessary if the primitive isto return 1s something uncanny. Bu itis thre too: o-alled educated people have officially ceased to believe thatthe dead ean become visible te pints, such appearances being linked to remote conditions that re seldom realized, and their emotional attitude tothe dead, ‘once highly ambiguous and ambivalent, has been toned down, in the higher reaches of mental life, to an unambiguous feeling of ‘Only few remarks need now be added to complete the picture, for, having considered animism, mage, sorcery, the omnipotence of ‘houghts, unintended repetition and the castration complex, weave ‘covered virtually all the factors that tur the frightening into the uncanny. ‘We cam also cal living person uncanny, that ito say when we credit him with ei inten, Bu this alone isnot enough: it mus be ‘elded that this intent to harm us is realized with the help of special ‘powers A good example ofthis isthe gettatore,* the uncanny gure ff Romance superstition, whom Albrecht Schaeffer, in his novel Josef Montfort, has turned into an attractive Bigure by employing ‘poetic intuition and profound psychoanalytic understinding. Yet ‘with these secret powers wo are back once more inthe realm of ‘animism, In Goethe's Faust, the pious Gretchen’s intuition that Mephisto has such hidden powers is what makes him soom so uneanny: we The Uncanny ‘fi, das ich gone sicher in Genie, Vili ol gor der Tey in [he fees that 1am quite certainly a genius, perhaps indeed the very Dev) "The uncanny effect of epilepsy or madness has the same origi, Here the layman sees « manifestation of force that he didnot suspect ina fellow urnan being, but whose strings he ean dimly perceive in remote comers of his own personality. The Middle ‘Ages atibutod al these manifestations of sickness consstenty, and pychologsaly almost correcly,totheinfluence of demons. Indeed, it would ot suprise me to hear that psychoanalysis, which seks to "unoover these seeret forces, had for this eason itself come to seem ‘uncanny to many people. In one ease, when I had succeeded ~ though not very quickly —in restoring a gil to health after many years of sickness, T heard this myself from the girs mother long ‘er her recovery ‘Seveed limbs, severed heud, aan detached from the arm (as in fairy tale by Haul, feet that dance by themselves (as in the novelby A. Schaeffer mentioned above)~allofthese have something highly uncanny about them, especially when they are credited, a in the last instance, with independent activity. We already know that this spectes ofthe uneanny stems from its proximity tothe castration complex. Some would avard the crown ofthe uncanny to the idea of being buried alive only apparently dead, However, psychoanalysis hhastaughts that histerrifjing fantasyismerelyavarantof enother, which was originally not at al frightening, but relied on a certain lascviousnes; this was the fantasy of living inthe womb. ‘Let us add something of a general nature, which is, strictly speaking, steady contained in what we have previously said about ‘animism and the superannuated workings of our mental apparatus, ‘but seems to call for special emphasis. This is the fact that an ‘uncanny effet often arises when the boundary between fantasy and realty is blurred, when we are faced withthe reality of something that we have until now considered imaginary, when a symbol takes ‘on the fal function and signifcance of what it symbolizes, and so 10 1 Th ican forth, This i at the root of much that I6 uncanny about magical practices, The infantile element about this, which also dominates the mental feof neurotic, i the excessive stress that i laid on| paychical reality, as opposed to material reality ~ a feature that i close tothe omnipotence of thoughts. During the isolation of the ‘Great War, [ame serosa number ofthe English Strand Magazine. Init, among a wimber of fairly pointless contributions, [read astory bout «young couple who move nto a furnished flat in which there {a curiously shaped table with crocodiles carved in the wood. “Towards evening the fats regularly pervided by an unbearable and highly characters smel, and in the dark the tenants stumble over things and fancy thy see something undeinable gliding over the stairs, In short, oe is Jo to surmise that, owing tothe presence of this table, the house is haunted by ghostly crocodiles or that the ‘wooden monsters come to life in the dark, or something ofthe sort Tera quite naive story, butts effet was extraordinarily uncanny. ‘To conclude this collection of examples, whic is certaily not exhanstivo, [wll mention an experience culled from psychoanalytic ‘work, which, unless it ress on pure coincidence, supplies the most pleasing confirmation of our conception ofthe uncanny. It often happens that neurotic men state that to them there is something ‘meanny about the female genitals. But what they find uncanny ['unbomely’ is actully the entrance to man's ald ‘home’ the place ‘where everyone once lived. A jocular saying has it that ‘lve isa Jongg for home’, and if someone dreams ofa certain place or a certain landscape and, while dreaming, thinks to himself, T know this place, Ive been here before’, thls place can be interpreted as representing his mother’s genitals or her womb. Here too, then, the uncanny [the ‘unhomely i what was once familiar ‘homely’, “homey. The negative prefi unis the indicator of repression, as Til Desig the foregoing discussion, ean dubs wl ne aren in the reer mint eis now tine hase wee broght together end ena proper herng 7 ‘may be thatthe uncanny (the unhomely]is something familar (ome my that has honed sb then spp and that Serthing uncanny sts tis condin. However such a choir of atta des not sem tose the pe of the ene. Cur propotion dry dos ot of la conere. Not cverpngttrmds sof repressed desis of speranmated tds fhe belonging othe prea the india and Chere that eso ney ‘ord we who deont te ft that forse every example wet aed in suppor our hes sn analogs one xn bo found eo Fr fasta, the severed adm Haas ay fale ceva has an wacany effet th we have traced back the castration compl ut ther wl probably agree wih tht the same mot produces nomen eft in Herat ry tfc eae of Rhrpsoin nih te pines as tbl cn tothe masters and, ut et holding tho severed hand oftas bother The prompt flies of he hx’ wishes in "The ing of Porte say sen jot anny ot dos to ling of Faye But tr ny tes oom et nstatanons Sleliments ad there noting way abo tae Ta he {oot The Tree Wishes: the wiles tempted te dos sell ta ed sage ty tse weld lke one too Inmet ‘Sonthe platen rout of her Ia ls sanyance, er husband wishes that maytag fom his edesne vil ae and ino ine 11 The Uncanny {is dangling there. This is very string, but notin the least uncanny. Indeed, the fairy talo is quite openly committed to the animistic ‘iow that thoughts and wishes are all-powerful, but I cannot cite one ‘genuine fairytale ia which anything uncanny occurs. We ae tld that is highly uncanny when inanimate objects pictures or dolls come tof, butin Hans Anderson's stories the houscholdutenalls, the furniture and the tin soldier are alive, and perhaps nothing is farther removed from the uncanny. Even when Pygmalion’ beati- {al state comes tof, this is hardly felt to be uncanny. ‘The falso semblance of death andthe raking ofthe dead have been represented to us as very uncanny themes, But agua, such things are commonplace in fairytales. Who would go ofa ast call it uncanny when, for instance, Snow White opens her eyes again? And the rising af the deud in miracle stories ~ those ofthe New “Testament, for example ~ arouses feelings that have nothing to do ‘with the uncanny. The unintended recurrence of the same thing bas produced elo that are undoubtedly unesnny, yot in a number of cases it serves other, quite different ends, We have already men- toned one in which tis employed to produce a sense ofthe comic, and such instances could be multiplied. At other times its used for emphasis, and so on. Moroover, where does the uncanny effect of silence, solitude and darkness come from? Do not these factors point to the part played by danger inthe genesis ofthe uncanny, ‘even though these are the conditions under which children ae mort ‘often seen to express fear? And ean we completly dscoust the clement of intellctual uncertainty, given that we have adeited its importance in relation tothe link between the ncanny and death So we should probably be prepared to assume that other con-

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