{{Short description|Psychological experience of something being strangely familiar}} {{Other uses}} [[Image:Repliee Q2.jpg|thumb|right|[[Actroid|Repliee]] Q2 is a lifelike robot developed at [[Osaka University]], often named as an example of the [[uncanny valley]] due to its similarity to humans, even replicating functions like blinking, breathing and speaking.]] The '''uncanny''' is the [[psychological]] experience of an event or thing that is [[creepiness|unsettling]] in a way that feels oddly familiar, rather than simply mysterious.<ref>Royle, p. 1.</ref> This phenomenon is used to describe incidents where a familiar entity is encountered in a frightening, eerie, or [[taboo]] context.<ref>Royle, p. vii.</ref><ref name="D. Bate, 2004 p. 39-40">D. Bate, ''Photography and Surrealism'' (2004) pp. 39–40.</ref>
[[Ernst Jentsch]] set out the concept of the uncanny, later elaborated on by [[Sigmund Freud]] in his 1919 essay "{{lang|de|Das Unheimliche}}", which explores the eeriness of dolls and waxworks.<ref name="unheimliche">{{cite web |last=Freud |first=Sigmund |author-link=Sigmund Freud |title=Das Unheimliche |url=http://www-rohan.sdsu.edu/~amtower/uncanny.html |year=1919 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110714192553/http://www-rohan.sdsu.edu/~amtower/uncanny.html |archive-date=July 14, 2011 }}</ref> For Freud, the uncanny is located in the strangeness of the ordinary.<ref name="D. Bate, 2004 p. 39-40"/> Expanding on the idea, [[psychoanalytic]] theorist [[Jacques Lacan]] wrote that the uncanny places us "in the field where we do not know how to distinguish bad and good, pleasure from displeasure", resulting in an irreducible [[anxiety]] that gestures to [[the Real]].<ref>{{Cite book |last=Lacan |first=Jacques | date = 2005 |title = O Seminário, livro 10: A Angústia | publisher = Jorge Zahar Editor}}</ref> The concept has since been taken up by a variety of thinkers and theorists like [[Robotics|roboticist]] [[Masahiro Mori (roboticist)|Masahiro Mori]]'s [[uncanny valley]]<ref name="Mori2012">{{cite journal | last = Mori | first = M. | translator1-last = MacDorman | translator1-first = K. F. | translator2-last = Kageki | translator2-first = Norri | year = 2012 | title = The Uncanny Valley [From the Field]| journal = IEEE Robotics & Automation Magazine| volume = 19 | issue = 2 | pages = 98–100 | doi = 10.1109/MRA.2012.2192811 }}</ref> and [[Julia Kristeva]]'s concept of [[abjection]].<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Kristeva |first=Julia |date=2018-07-31 |title="Approaching Abjection," from Powers of Horror: An Essay on Abjection |url=http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/9781942401209.008 |journal=Classic Readings on Monster Theory |pages=91–100 |doi=10.1017/9781942401209.008|isbn=9781942401209 |url-access=subscription }}</ref>
==Etymology== ''Canny'' is from the Anglo-Saxon root {{lang|ang|[[Wikt:ken|ken]]}}: "knowledge, understanding, or cognizance; mental perception." The uncanny is thus "''an idea beyond one's ken''",<ref>{{cite web |title=Definition of ken |url=http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/ken |work=[[Dictionary.com]]}}</ref> something outside one's familiar knowledge or perceptions.
Freud noted the German {{lang|de|unheimlich}} as the antonym of {{lang|de|heimlich}}, or the "homely".<ref name="unheimliche" /> A more literal rendering of the psychoanalytic concept of the uncanny would therefore be "unhomeliness".
==History== ===German idealism=== Philosopher [[F. W. J. Schelling]] raised the question of the uncanny in his late ''Philosophie der Mythologie'' of 1837, postulating that the [[Homeric scholarship|Homeric]] clarity was built upon a prior repression of the uncanny.<ref>A. Vidler, ''The Architectural Uncanny'' (1993) p. 26</ref>
In ''[[The Will to Power (manuscript)|The Will to Power]]'' manuscript, German philosopher [[Friedrich Nietzsche]] refers to [[nihilism]] as "the uncanniest of all guests" and, earlier, in ''[[On the Genealogy of Morals]]'' he argues it is the "will to truth" that has destroyed the [[metaphysics]] that underpins the values of [[Western culture]]. Hence, he coins the phrase "European nihilism" to describe the condition that afflicts those [[Age of Enlightenment|Enlightenment]] ideals that seemingly hold strong values yet undermine themselves.
===Ernst Jentsch=== Uncanniness was first explored psychologically by [[Ernst Jentsch]] in a 1906 essay, ''On the Psychology of the Uncanny''. Jentsch defines the ''Uncanny'' as: being a product of "...intellectual uncertainty; so that the uncanny would always, as it were, be something one does not know one’s way about in. The better oriented in his environment a person is, the less readily will he get the impression of something uncanny in regard to the objects and events in it."<ref name="unheimliche" /> He expands upon its use in fiction:
{{Quote|In telling a story one of the most successful devices for easily creating uncanny effects is to leave the reader in uncertainty whether a particular figure in the story is a human being or an automaton and to do it in such a way that his attention is not focused directly upon his uncertainty, so that he may not be led to go into the matter and clear it up immediately.<ref name="unheimliche" />}}
Jentsch identifies German writer [[E. T. A. Hoffmann]] as a writer who uses uncanny effects in his work, focusing specifically on Hoffmann's story "The Sandman" ("[[Der Sandmann]]"), which features a lifelike doll, Olympia.
===Sigmund Freud=== The concept of the Uncanny was later elaborated on and developed by [[Sigmund Freud]] in his 1919 essay "Das Unheimliche" or, "The Uncanny", which also draws on the work of [[E. T. A. Hoffmann|Hoffmann]] (whom Freud considers the "unrivaled master of the uncanny in literature"). However, he criticizes Jentsch's belief that Olympia is the central uncanny element in the story ("[[The Sandman (short story)|The Sandman]]"):
{{Quote|I cannot think – and I hope most readers of the story will agree with me – that the theme of the doll Olympia, who is to all appearances a living being, is by any means the only, or indeed the most important, element that must be held responsible for the quite unparalleled atmosphere of uncanniness evoked by the story.<ref name="unheimliche" />}}
Instead, Freud draws on a wholly different element of the story, namely, "the idea of being robbed of one's eyes", to be the "more striking instance of uncanniness" in the tale. He focuses on how the anxiety of their loss, is not unlike male [[castration anxiety]]. He continues, explaining how this anxiety may lead a male audience, robbed of their masculinity, feeling the uncanny. Their [[masculinity]] being robbed, provides Freud the foundation to illustrate a central contributor to male fear.
Freud goes on, for the remainder of the essay, to identify uncanny effects that result from instances of "repetition of the same thing," linking the concept to that of the [[repetition compulsion]].<ref>N. Royle, ''The Uncanny'' (2003) p. 90</ref> He includes incidents wherein one becomes lost and accidentally retraces one's steps, and instances wherein random numbers recur, seemingly meaningfully (here Freud may be said to be prefiguring the concept that [[Carl Jung|Jung]] would later refer to as [[synchronicity]]). He also discusses the uncanny nature of [[Otto Rank]]'s concept of the "double".
Freud specifically relates an aspect of the ''Uncanny'' derived from German etymology. By contrasting the German adjective ''unheimlich'' with its base word ''heimlich'' ("concealed, hidden, in secret"), he proposes that social taboo often yields an aura not only of pious reverence but even more so of horror and even disgust, as the taboo state of an item gives rise to the commonplace assumption that that which is hidden from ''public eye'' (cf. the ''eye'' or ''sight'' metaphor) must be a dangerous threat and even an abomination – especially if the concealed item is obviously or presumingly sexual in nature. Basically, the ''Uncanny'' is what unconsciously reminds us of our own ''[[Id, ego, and super-ego|Id]]'', our forbidden and thus [[Psychological repression|repressed impulses]] – especially when placed in a context of uncertainty that can remind one of infantile beliefs in the [[omnipotence]] of thought.<ref name="D. Bate, 2004 p. 39-40"/> Such uncanny elements are perceived as being threatening by our ''[[Id, ego, and super-ego|super-ego]]'' ridden with [[Oedipus complex|oedipal guilt]] because it fears [[Castration anxiety|symbolic castration]] by punishment for deviating from societal norms. Thus, the items and individuals that we [[Psychological projection|project]] our own repressed impulses upon become a most ''uncanny'' threat to us, ''uncanny'' monsters and freaks akin to fairy-tale folk-devils, and subsequently often become scapegoats we blame for all sorts of perceived miseries, calamities, and maladies.
{{Quote|What interests us most in this long extract is to find that among its different shades of meaning the word ''heimlich'' exhibits one which is identical with its opposite, ''unheimlich''. What is ''heimlich'' thus comes to be ''unheimlich''. [...] In general we are reminded that the word ''heimlich'' is not unambiguous, but belongs to two sets of ideas, which, without being contradictory, are yet very different: on the one hand it means what is familiar and agreeable, and on the other, what is concealed and kept out of sight. ''Unheimlich'' is customarily used, we are told, being the contrary only of the first signification of ''heimlich'', and not of the second. [...] On the other hand, we notice that Schelling says something which throws quite a new light on the concept of the ''Unheimlich'', for which we were certainly not prepared. According to him, everything is ''unheimlich'' that ought to have remained secret and hidden but has come to light.
[...]
A study of dreams, phantasies and myths has taught us that anxiety about one's eyes, the fear of going blind ''[forming a central theme in "The Sandman"]'', is often enough a substitute for the dread of being castrated. The self-blinding of the mythical criminal, Oedipus, was simply a mitigated form of the punishment of castration – the only punishment that was adequate for him by the ''lex talionis''. [...] All further doubts are removed when we learn the details of their 'castration complex' from the analysis of [[Neurosis#Psychoanalytical account of neurosis|neurotic patients]], and realize its immense importance in their mental life.<ref name="unheimliche" />}}
After Freud, [[Jacques Lacan]], in his 1962–1963 seminar "L'angoisse" ("Anxiety"), used the Unheimlich "via regia" to enter into the territory of Angst.<ref>A. Vidler, ''The Architectural Uncanny'' (1994) p. 224</ref> Lacan showed how the same image that seduces the subject, trapping him in the narcissistic impasse, may suddenly, by a contingency, show that it is dependent on something, some hidden object, and so the subject may grasp at the same time that he is not autonomous (5 December 1962).
==Related theories== [[Image:Mori Uncanny Valley.svg|frame|Hypothesized emotional response of human subjects is plotted against [[anthropomorphism]] of a robot, following roboticist [[Masahiro Mori (roboticist)|Masahiro Mori]]'s theory of the uncanny. The uncanny valley is the region of negative emotional response towards robots that seem "almost human". Movement amplifies the emotional response.]]
This concept is closely related to [[Julia Kristeva]]'s concept of [[abjection]], where one reacts adversely to something forcefully cast out of the [[symbolic order]]. Abjection can be uncanny in that the observer can recognize something within the abject, possibly of what it was before it was 'cast out', yet be repulsed by what it is that caused it to be cast out to begin with. Kristeva lays special emphasis on the uncanny return of the past abject with relation to the 'uncanny stranger'.<ref>S. Beardsworth, ''Julia Kristeva'' (2012) pp. 189–92</ref>
Sadeq Rahimi has noted a common relationship between the uncanny and direct or metaphorical visual references, which he explains in terms of basic processes of ego development, specifically as developed by Lacan's theory of the [[mirror stage]].<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.english.hawaii.edu/criticalink/lacan/|title=Lacan: The Mirror Stage|website=www.english.hawaii.edu|access-date=2019-10-02}}</ref> Rahimi presents a wide range of evidence from various contexts to demonstrate how uncanny experiences are typically associated with themes and metaphors of vision, blindness, mirrors and other optical tropes. He also presents historical evidence showing strong presence of ocular and specular themes and associations in the literary and psychological tradition out of which the notion of 'the uncanny' emerged. According to Rahimi, instances of the uncanny like [[doppelgänger]]s, [[ghost]]s, ''[[déjà vu]]'', [[alter ego]]s, self-alienations and split personhoods, phantoms, [[twin]]s, living dolls, etc. share two important features: that they are closely tied with visual tropes, and that they are variations on the theme of doubling of the ego.<ref>{{cite journal |last=Rahimi |first=S. |date=June 2013 |title=The ego, the ocular, and the uncanny: Why are metaphors of vision central in accounts of the uncanny? |journal=[[The International Journal of Psychoanalysis]] |publisher=[[Wiley-Blackwell]] |volume=94 |issue=3 |pages=453–476 |doi=10.1111/j.1745-8315.2012.00660.x |pmid=23781831|s2cid=10856256 }}</ref>
Roboticist [[Masahiro Mori (roboticist)|Masahiro Mori]]'s essay on human reactions to humanlike entities, ''Bukimi no Tani Genshō'' (Valley of Eeriness Phenomenon), describes the gap between familiar living people and their also familiar inanimate representations, such as dolls, puppets, mannequins, prosthetic hands, and android robots. The entities in the valley are between these two poles of common phenomena. Mori has stated that he made the observation independently of Jentsch and Freud,<ref>Jochum, E.; Goldberg, K.: Cultivating the uncanny: The Telegarden and other oddities. In: Herath, D.; Kroos, C.; Stelarc (Hrsg.): Robots and art: Exploring an unlikely symbiosis. S. 149–175. Singapore 2015</ref> though a link was forged by Reichardt and translators who rendered ''bukimi'' as ''uncanny''.<ref>MacDorman, K. F. (2019). Masahiro Mori und das unheimliche Tal: Eine Retrospektive. In K. D. Haensch, L. Nelke, & M. Planitzer (Eds.), Uncanny interfaces (pp. 220–234). Hamburg, Germany: Textem. {{ISBN|978-3864852176}} {{doi|10.5281/zenodo.3226274}}</ref><ref>Mori, M. (2019). Das unheimliche Tal (K. F. MacDorman & V. Schwind, trans.). In K. D. Haensch, L. Nelke, & M. Planitzer (Eds.), Uncanny interfaces (pp. 212–219). Hamburg, Germany: Textem. {{ISBN|978-3864852176}} {{doi|10.5281/zenodo.3226987}}</ref><ref>Reichardt, J. (1978). Human reactions to imitation humans, or Masahiro Mori’s Uncanny Valley. In ''Robots: Fact, Fiction, and Prediction.'' New York: Penguin.</ref>
==See also== {{wiktionary|uncanny}} {{wiktionary|unheimliche}} {{Columns-list|colwidth=22em| *[[Creepiness]] *[[Evil eye]] *[[Liminality]] *[[Simulacrum]] *[[Liminal space (aesthetic)]]}}
==References== ===Citations=== {{Reflist}}
===Sources=== * {{cite book | last=Royle | first=Nicholas | title=The Uncanny|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=XkvSWxjrMN8C&pg=PA1 | year=2003 | publisher=Manchester University Press | isbn=978-0-7190-5561-4}}
==External links== *[http://courses.washington.edu/freudlit/Uncanny.Notes.html Freud, 'The Uncanny']
{{Idealism}} {{Metaphysics}} {{philosophy of mind}} {{Sigmund Freud}} {{Authority control}}
[[Category:Concepts in aesthetics]] [[Category:Psychoanalytic terminology]] [[Category:Fear]] [[Category:Freudian psychology]]