“Uncanny” Freud

1) I find the readings from Freud for this week to be particularly intriguing because of the two apparently contradictory moves that they seem to entail.

On the one hand – as Prof. Doane emphasized in the lectures – Freud moves from nature (essence) towards culture by proposing the model of the polymorphous child for whom all erotogenic zones are potential sources of satisfaction (Three Theories of Sexuality, 50). This model presupposes that sexual identity is not a given/ a fact of nature, but a construct – the result of struggles and cultural/social formations.

Freud’s discussion of castration anxiety and the Oedipal complex, on the other hand, appears to bring sexuality back in the realm of nature, grounding the necessity of a definitive state of inequality between men and women and of the inferiority of the latter. According to Freud, the woman is necessarily marked by lack/ castrated. Even though it appears to be intended to operate primarily at the level of the symbolic, this theory is constructed on a biological fact, supported with diverse “evidence” taken from “aesthetics” (The Uncanny, 122) and personal experience with neurotic patients, and formulated as a necessary and universal law of the Unconscious.

Thus, if the first of Freud’s moves provides fertile ground for feminism (as well as queer theory and other contemporary discourses, for that matter), the second one appears to enforce a patriarchal fixed state of affairs – given that the Oedipal complex and its implications are formulated as laws of the Unconscious – completely unacceptable for the feminists (which raises questions for me about the effectiveness of adopting the Freudian model in feminist attempts to annihilate patriarchy and its implications). Rather than merely describing the conditions of existence of a patriarchal society, Freud’s theory is enforcing/prescribing the patriarchal order while explaining it. The departure from nature was not completed.



2) What is the relation between the principle of “a repetition-compulsion” and mimesis (representation as mimesis)? Would the acceptance of “a repetition-compulsion” as a valid, necessary, and universal principle presuppose that theatre – the spectacle-machine based on repetition par excellence – is a mode of manifestation of the uncanny or an undoing of this category through the move to consciousness and to will/the voluntary?

3) Although I have doubts about the validity of Freud’s theory of sexuality, I find his theoretical approach fascinating as an epistemological undertaking. Freud indentifies “gaps in our knowledge” (Three Theories of Sexuality, 42) and proposes psycho-analysis as a method for knowledge production in order to “fill” these and create a coherent system for understanding. Presupposing a move into depth, beyond appearances, psycho-analysis as an epistemological method involves interpretation, intuition, and creativity, being superbly un-rigorous and, for this reason, a fascinating intellectual adventure for me.