her. While the infantile castration complex is the only oneFreud goes into detail with in the essay, there are manyothers that would cause uncanniness if they were revived. The reason for this is that once the child grows up thesecomplexes are hidden deep within the subconscious and aretotally without logical reason. The adult does not realizethat he fears castration, instead he can only rationallyexplain his fear as that of being blinded. The feelings ofchildhood remain with us throughout adult life but they areonly faintly perceptible, and this too can causeuncanniness. The foggy remembrance of a sensation that canno longer be grasped but still affects our emotions in waysthat we can not explain to ourselves.The second point of Freuds theory states thatuncanniness is experienced when primitive beliefs which havebeen surmounted seem once more to be confirmed. Thesesurmounted beliefs are usually beliefs concerning theafter-life, magic, and other such supernatural things thatwere once part of early mans belief system. This part ofhis theory is closely connected to superstition. Forexample, most modern individuals do not believe in theexistence of ghosts, yet some religions bless houses. Thequestion arises then, why would a blessing be necessarywithout the fear of an evil or simply supernatural presencein the house? To explain this part of his theory Freudfocuses a great deal on our relation to death. He statesthat there is scarcely any other matter...upon which ourthoughts and feelings have changed so little since theearliest times, and in which discarded forms have been socompletely preserved under a thin disguise(Freud 395).A modern day example of the idea of death causinguncanniness can be found in the recent film, The SixthSense. This film deals with ability of a little boy to seethe spirits of dead people all around him. The source of theviewers uncanniness is a result of more than simply fear,it is as Freud states due to ...
