heimlich--
"familiar," "homely," to "secret and hidden" to "dangerous and dreaded"
Freud explores the psychology of the uncanny on two
levels of child development: the pre-oedipal stage of primary narcissism
and oedipal-level castration fear.
primary narcissism -- double, reflection and shadow
castration fear-- the example of Offenbach''s Tales
of Hoffmann. "The Sandman": tear the kids'' eyes out to induce sleep.
In the unconscious, he represents the castrating oedipal
father
Hoffman''s story "The Sandman" -- Nathanael''s fear
of the Sandman=the lawyer=anybody whose business is related to eyes
This story is "uncanny," says Freud, because
Nathanael''s fear of the "sandman" is at once incomprehensible and
strangely familiar: it partakes of the unconscious.
Psychoanalysis will provide the explanation for this
fear, . . .and thus neutralize the uncanniness of the story. Nathanael
fears losing his eyes; but that fear is the displacement (and disguise) for
another, more fundamental, fear: castration.
Eyes = male genitals
Now that we know this, F claims, the uncanny in the
story dissolves. The text''s neurotic symptom, it would seem, has been
"cured."
the case study is then the narrative of a narrative which
attempts to persuade readers of the accuracy of the reading.
example--- a 40-yr-old patients
slated to inherit ten million dollars on his ailing father''s death dreamed
that he was in love with the wife of an old friend. Not seen his
friend in years, never met his wife, only knew that the wife was a dancer as
his own mother had been.
His friend---Mr. Zandemann
The maternal eye has an earlier, reflective,
mirroring function, while the paternal eye is the source of later
superego retribution for real or imagined transgressions.
