The Uncanny

The Uncanny Symbols, Allegory and Motifs

Eyes (symbol)

Freud argues that the eyes often symbolize male genitals, i.e., the testicles, and that the fear of losing one's eyes corresponds to the infant fear of being castrated.

Female genitals (symbol)

Freud claims that the body of one's mother, and all female genitalia, has an uncanny effect, as it represents the ultimate home we once inhabited, but that now is foreign and strange to us.

Buried alive (symbol)

Freud believes that the fear of being buried alive actually symbolizes the repressed desire to return to the womb.

Uncanny repetition (symbol)

Freud believes that the uncanny repetition of events or numbers (say, if the number 62 kept arising throughout our day), represents the repressed memory of our infantile compulsion to repeat behaviors.

Severed body parts (symbol)

Freud believes that severed body parts moving on their own combines the repressed omnipotence of thoughts that infants had in childhood and the fear of castration.