In my research into the “unheimlich” (Freud) I read something about repetition. Is there a link between obsessive-compulsive neuroses and the uncanny? Are people with obsessive-compulsive disorder more sensitive to this? I am currently in art education. And in my research I came across a few artists with obsessive-compulsive neuroses, and their work exudes that uncanny feel.
I hope to find some kind of link in this. Hopefully you can help me.
thanks in advance
Answer
The connection between obsessive-compulsive neurosis and the Unheimliche could consist in an aspect of the symptomatology of obsessive-compulsive neurosis that Freud describes as “omnipotent thought”. In Totem and Taboo, Freud discusses ‘the omnipotence of thoughts’ as a characteristic feature of obsessive-compulsive neurosis. For example, the Rat Man, an obsessive-compulsive neurotic who was analyzed by Freud, has the strange feeling that what he thinks, wishes or fears will happen some time later. When he thinks about a certain person for a long time, he bumps into him a day later. When in his rage he wishes someone a stroke, they die a few weeks later. At the same time, the obsessive-compulsive neurotic is usually very well aware of the fact that such a ‘hunch’ is nothing but nonsense. Such frightening ‘premonitions’, which give the impression that his thoughts have power over real events, belong pre-eminently to the symptomatology of obsessive-compulsive neurosis, and can at the same time be regarded as experiences of the Unheimliche, because his thoughts seem to influence reality and because at the same time he experiences that he is not master of his thoughts.
dr. Tomas Geyskens, researcher at the Higher Institute of Philosophy, KULeuven
Answered by
Ines Van Houtte
philosophy
Old Market 13 3000 Leuven
https://www.kuleuven.be/
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