ABSTRACT
As psychoanalysis has, at least for many of us, drifted away from its focus on fantasy (the roiling Unconscious of Freud) towards the more pragmatic interpersonal/relational matrix, we have become less aware of, and pay less attention to, manifestations of the uncanny. Everyone has had experiences with the uncanny, but it is more easily experienced than described. “Uncanny” can mean anything from a mild experience of dislocation, or déjà vu, on to sheer terror. I want to start with a story of my own experience with the uncanny – particularly its relationship to that ultimate uncanny, Evil – and then go on to discuss the consequences of this shift for psychoanalytic therapy.
