Freud on the Uncanny: A Tale of Two Theories

Since its publication nearly a century ago, Freud's essay on the uncanny has attracted much attention in the humanities, and has become a key point of reference for many discussions of literature and art.1 In spite of this, Freud's essay is often poorly understood. Freud's theory of the uncanny is typically referred to in the literature as the "return of the repressed." Indeed, at one point in the essay, Freud does define the uncanny as "something which is secretly familiar … which has undergone repression and then returned from it". Not long after he offers this definition, however, Freud goes on to distinguish two different etiologies of uncanny experiences—one having to do with repression, and...