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What Does The Uncanny Mean

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The theme of the ‘double' has been explored as a concept frequently over hundreds of years; the most emblematic being in ‘The Uncanny' by Sigmund Freud. Freud opens his essay by giving a definition of what "uncanny" is, that it "belongs to the realm of the frightening, of what evokes fear and dread"[]. The words ‘heimlich' and ‘unheimlich' are used within Freud's essay, as he refers the two they integrate to create the meaning behind what the "uncanny" actually is. He explains the hindrance between one another as ‘unheimlich' means something which is hidden or concealed, and ‘heimlich' defines the familiar. This paradoxical barrier is what then merges them both to form the "uncanny", when something familiar is integrated which is then perceived as something which is unfamiliar. The utilisation of the ‘double’ is described by Freud in his essay ‘The Uncanny’ written in 1919; …show more content…

This relationship is intensified by the spontaneous transmission of mental processes from one of these persons to the other - what we would call telepathy - so that the one becomes co-owner of the other's knowledge, emotions and experience. Moreover, a person may identify himself with another and so become unsure of his true self; or he may substitute the other's self for his own. This self may be duplicated, divided and

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