The ego, the ocular, and the uncanny: Why are metaphors of vision central in accounts of the uncanny?

Abstract

I am my own twin,

Always with me, same as me,

and always watching me!

From interview with a psychotic patient

Every man carries with him through life a mirror,

as unique and impossible to get rid of as his shadow

W.H. Auden, 1989, p.93

I cannot urge you too strongly

to a meditation on optics.

Jacques Lacan, 1991, p.76

This paper outlines the basic arguments for a reading of the notion of the uncanny that draws on direct and metaphorical significances of the ocular in the development of human ego. It is argued that a specular‐oriented reading of the uncanny as made possible through Lacan’s model for ego development introduces a significant analytic device capable of explaining diverse features of the uncanny experience that escaped the traditional phallic/castration‐based reading. To examine this claim, evidence is presented from a number of contexts to demonstrate how uncanny experiences are typically constructed through and associated with themes and metaphors of vision, blindness, mirrors and other optical tropes. Evidence is also presented from a historical point of view to demonstrate the strong presence of ocular and specular themes, devices and associations in a tradition of literary and psychological writing out of which the notion of ‘the uncanny’ (including Freud’s own formulation) emerged. It is demonstrated that the main instances of the uncanny, such as doppelgangers, ghosts, déjà vu, alter egos, self‐alienations and split personhoods, phantoms, twins, living dolls and many more in the list of ‘things of terror’ typically share two important features: they are closely tied with visual tropes, and they are variations on the theme of doubling. It is then argued that both of these features are integrally associated with the developmental processes of ego formation and self‐identity, thus explaining the strong association of the uncanny accounts and experiences with ocular and specular motifs and metaphors.

Key words:

• Ego Development
• Eyes
• Mirrors
• The Double
• The Uncanny

Notes

1. It was in fact not until the 17th century that mirrors became commonly accessible objects. In late 16th century, when a Raphael painting cost only £3000, a large silver‐framed mirror from Venice cost £8000 (Melchior‐Bonnet, 2001, p. 24). See Melchior‐Bonnet (2001) for a detailed history of mirrors and mirror‐making.

2. German author, Johann Paul Friedrich Richter (1763–1825), known commonly as ‘Jean Paul’.

3. Fichte, Feuerbach, Hess, Goethe, Heine, Hegel, Hoffmann, Holderlin, Jean Paul, Kleist, Novalis, Schiller, Schlegel, and so many more names can be listed under Romantics who seriously engaged with the questions of doubleness of the self and self‐alienation in their philosophical and literary works. See, for example, Webber, 1996, pp. 23ff; or Feuerlicht, 1978, pp. 18ff. for discussions of this trend.

4. Bernd Heinrich Wilhelm von Kleist (1777–1811), German poet and author.

5. Ernest Theodor Amadeus (Wilhelm) Hoffmann (1776–1822), German jurist and Romantic author of fantastic and horror fiction.

6. Tchaikovsky’s Nutcracker Suite was inspired by Hoffmann’s story, The Nutcracker and the Mouse King. Also inspired by The Sandman were the works of French composer Léo Delibes, including his highly popular ballet, titled Coppélia (1870). Hoffmann’s ocular metaphors of chronic dualism in The Sandman, the magic spectacles, were later used by Offenbach in his opera Les contes d’Hoffmann (1880), in which Hoffmann himself wears those spectacles and falls in love with an automaton. German composer, Paul Hindemith, wrote an opera based on Hoffmann’s tales, entitled Cardillac (1926). The influence of Hoffmann’s work in Russian intellectual and artistic productions was so extensive as to merit a whole volume on that topic, thence Ingham’s (1974) book, E.T.A. Hoffmann’s Reception in Russia.

7. See also Kuzniar (1989) or Slessarev (1971) for discussions of the significance of the eye and vision motifs in Hoffmann.

8. So much so that Strachey is compelled to complain of the “special difficulties for the translator” raised by this opening, and to apologize to the reader, “it is to be hoped that readers will not allow themselves to be discouraged by this preliminary obstacle” (Freud, 1919, p. 218).

9. “A word the meaning of which develops in the direction of ambivalence, until it finally coincides with its opposite” (Freud, 1919, p. 226).

10. Ernst Jentsch (1867–1919), German doctor, author of many texts on human psychology and psychopathology.

11. With the possible exception of references to the birth of the double, which unfortunately he leaves wanting in elaboration.

12. Note the reference to ‘clarity’ in Clara’s name and to coppo, ‘eye‐socket’ in Italian (Freud, 1919, p. 230) in those of Coppelius and Coppola.

13. “The kernel of reality is horror, horror of the Real” (Zizek, 1997, p. 22)

14. Charles Marlow, the recurrent character known as the ‘alter ego’ of Joseph Conrad. The reference here is to Marlow’s encounter with Kurtz, in Conrad’s Heart of Darkness.