ABSTRACT
The application of psychoanalytic theories to art has always presented serious methodological difficulties. The recognition of something familiar goes hand in hand with the perception of something unknown, new, something other. This chapter explains that a crucial dimension of uncertainty appears to be demanded by the aesthetic object. Art, history, literature and psychoanalysis have each a distinct, meaningful place in the wider repertoire of interrelated and mutually influential cultural creations. The experience of contemporary art offers itself as the object of multiple interpretations. Traditionally, many psychoanalytic authors have tended to link the aesthetic experience with the vicissitudes of the encounter with the primary object. However, Tausk argues, psychoanalysis is not psychiatry. In psychoanalysis, things work differently. The uncanny, a critical and vital moment in psychic development, persists as an important characteristic in people emotional and psychological adult state.
