Freud’s Uncanny and the Proscenium Stage
Thoughts on the Ego in Theater
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.21248/thewis.6.2017.130Abstract
One of the first documentary movies, A Train Arrives at La Ciotat Train Station by the Lumière brothers from the year 1895, is well known for its famous urban legend: the rumor is that, while the movie was being shown at one of its first screenings, the audience ran away, fearing that a real train would appear and destroy the café where the screening was taking place. Whether or not this story is true, I believe that the fact that it exists makes it worthy of further consideration. Either the audience must have been used to the fact that the train on screen was not a real one but a picture in motion, or they did not know anything about it and ran away. Interesting within this context is that the urban legend deals with viewing habits.
Literaturhinweise
Freud, Sigmund: Aus der Geschichte einer infantilen Neurose, in: S.F.: Studienausgabe. Vol: 8: Zwei Kinderneurosen. Ed. by Alexander Mitscherlich/Angela Richards/James Strachey. Frankfurt am Main 1972, pp. 149-166.
Freud, Sigmund: “A Difficulty in the Path of Psycho-Analysis”, in: S.F.: The Standard Edition of the Complete Psychological Works of Sigmund Freud. Vol. 17. Op. cit., pp. 140-143.
Freud, Sigmund: Das Unheimliche, in: S.F.: Studienausgabe. Vol. 4: Psychologische Schriften. Ed. by Alexander Mitscherlich/Angela Richards/James Strachey. Frankfurt am Main 1972, pp. 241-274.
Freud, Sigmund: From the History of an Infantile Neurosis, in: S.F.: The Standard Edition of the Complete Psychological Works of Sigmund Freud. Vol:17: An Infantile Neurosis and Other Works. Ed. by James Strachey et al. London 1955, pp. 1-60.
Freud, Sigmund: The “Uncanny”. Transl. by Alix Strachey. http://web.mit.edu/allanmc/www/freud1.pdf.
Metz, Christian: “Der fiktionale Film und sein Zuschauer. Eine metapsychologische Untersuchung”, in: Psyche 48:11 (1994), pp. 1004-1046.
