"For the 'double' was originally an insurance against destruction of the ego, an 'energetic denial of the power of death', as Rank says; and probably the 'immortal soul' was the first 'double' of the body'.... From having been an assurance of immortality he becomes the ghastly harbinger of death."
I think the ambiguity seen in the uncanny is nicely displayed in this quote. While previously the double was an indication of the transcendent position of the soul, in secular modernity the double comes to represent the failure of transcendental reason. In other words, it is an indication the collapse of the (imaginary) organic link between s-er and s-ed -- it is the threat of castration actualized. This shift in thought is reflected in the way Freud approaches the double. No longer a sign of our immortality, the double comes to represent the death drive (i.e. our mortality or the disintegration of our subjectivity).
The first image I think is effective in demonstrating part of Freud's point. While to the "primitive mind" the photographic image may seem supernatural (e.g. in more traditional societies where people fear their image being captured by the camera), to us enlightened folk the faded sepia photograph is a clearly a sentimental reminder of a long deceased family member. I think our need to hang onto old photographs is also telling of a sort of repetition compulsion as well, but I'm having trouble putting it into words at the moment...
Freud introduces the concept of the double to reveal the function of the 'conscience'. He claims that "those unfulfilled but possible futures to which we still like to cling in phantasy, all those strivings of the ego which adverse external circumstances have crushed, and all our suppressed acts of volition which nourish in us the illusion of Free Will" (i'm using a different translation, but I think this quote is on page 142). Freud explains that the ego is split into two parts, one being the conscience which performs a self-critical function and censors the rest of the ego. The uncanniness is then rooted in the "suppressed acts of violation" that we attempt to censor. On one level Sue de Beers video makes public this masturbatory urge that some people may have which is often regarded as taboo. This video then operates on two levels of the uncanny, one being the reveal (or fear of a reveal) of the repressed by the conscience which I explain above. The second being the "doubling as a preservation against extinction" (142) which is explicitly treated by de Beer through a sex act with oneself, which obviously will not result in reproduction, despite the presence of two bodies. The terror of the uncanny is then found in this expression of mortality.
"For the 'double' was originally an insurance against destruction of the ego, an 'energetic denial of the power of death', as Rank says; and probably the 'immortal soul' was the first 'double' of the body'.... From having been an assurance of immortality he becomes the ghastly harbinger of death."
ReplyDeleteI think the ambiguity seen in the uncanny is nicely displayed in this quote. While previously the double was an indication of the transcendent position of the soul, in secular modernity the double comes to represent the failure of transcendental reason. In other words, it is an indication the collapse of the (imaginary) organic link between s-er and s-ed -- it is the threat of castration actualized. This shift in thought is reflected in the way Freud approaches the double. No longer a sign of our immortality, the double comes to represent the death drive (i.e. our mortality or the disintegration of our subjectivity).
The first image I think is effective in demonstrating part of Freud's point. While to the "primitive mind" the photographic image may seem supernatural (e.g. in more traditional societies where people fear their image being captured by the camera), to us enlightened folk the faded sepia photograph is a clearly a sentimental reminder of a long deceased family member. I think our need to hang onto old photographs is also telling of a sort of repetition compulsion as well, but I'm having trouble putting it into words at the moment...
In regards to the Sue de Beer video:
ReplyDeleteFreud introduces the concept of the double to reveal the function of the 'conscience'. He claims that "those unfulfilled but possible futures to which we still like to cling in phantasy, all those strivings of the ego which adverse external circumstances have crushed, and all our suppressed acts of volition which nourish in us the illusion of Free Will" (i'm using a different translation, but I think this quote is on page 142). Freud explains that the ego is split into two parts, one being the conscience which performs a self-critical function and censors the rest of the ego. The uncanniness is then rooted in the "suppressed acts of violation" that we attempt to censor. On one level Sue de Beers video makes public this masturbatory urge that some people may have which is often regarded as taboo. This video then operates on two levels of the uncanny, one being the reveal (or fear of a reveal) of the repressed by the conscience which I explain above. The second being the "doubling as a preservation against extinction" (142) which is explicitly treated by de Beer through a sex act with oneself, which obviously will not result in reproduction, despite the presence of two bodies. The terror of the uncanny is then found in this expression of mortality.