Laurence A. Rickels
- Published in print:
- 2011
- Published Online:
- August 2015
- ISBN:
- 9780816675951
- eISBN:
- 9781452947167
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of Minnesota Press
- DOI:
- 10.5749/minnesota/9780816675951.003.0002
- Subject:
- Psychology, Social Psychology
This chapter focuses on the psychoanalysis of Sigmund Freud and Friedrich Nietzsche. According to Freud, uncanny experiences occur whenever repressed infantile complexes are reanimated through some ...
More
This chapter focuses on the psychoanalysis of Sigmund Freud and Friedrich Nietzsche. According to Freud, uncanny experiences occur whenever repressed infantile complexes are reanimated through some current impressions. The uncanniness of the double must also be charted back to a surmounted era of mental development. The chapter argues that one’s tribal past, including infantile or archaic beliefs associated with mourning comes in, like a ghost, under and over the threshold of repression. In taking cognizance of the exceptional status of belief in ghosts, Freud touches on the wound of terminable mourning. Freud could never fathom why mourning should be so painful, why mourning should leave behind open wounds even as it provides prosthetic replacements for each lost attachment.Less
This chapter focuses on the psychoanalysis of Sigmund Freud and Friedrich Nietzsche. According to Freud, uncanny experiences occur whenever repressed infantile complexes are reanimated through some current impressions. The uncanniness of the double must also be charted back to a surmounted era of mental development. The chapter argues that one’s tribal past, including infantile or archaic beliefs associated with mourning comes in, like a ghost, under and over the threshold of repression. In taking cognizance of the exceptional status of belief in ghosts, Freud touches on the wound of terminable mourning. Freud could never fathom why mourning should be so painful, why mourning should leave behind open wounds even as it provides prosthetic replacements for each lost attachment.
