Study Questions about Gothic Literature

Question 1

Define Freud’s Concept of Das Unheimliche (The Uncanny)

Answer 1

The Uncanny designates both an aesthetic pattern and neurotic patterns in those suffering from compulsive disorders. Critically, the uncanny is the repeat manifestation of pre/unconscious, repressed facets of psychological. Especially, mental content relating to sex and/or death. In other words, the uncanny is the manifested appearance of latent mental/sociopsychological content which has circumvented the defence mechanisms of the reality-repression principle. As such, the uncanny is a symbolic hint for something unspoken. It can take many forms, but Freud identified some in particular:

• Psychological splitting/disassociation, especially as studied by Otto rank (doppelgänger)
• Inverted projection (the Evil Eye)
• ## Receptivity to the unconsciousness (hypnosis, psychedelics, the 19th and late 18th c. practice of mesmirism, which is essentially).