The uncanny

The concept of the uncanny has a rich history, indebted as much to psychoanalysis as philosophy. After a lengthy latency period, the concept has flourished in the last 20 years. This growth of interest in the uncanny is evident in a range of disciplines and thematic areas, including Heideggerian scholarship. This chapter traces the conceptual and affective significance of the uncanny concept. It traces the origins of the uncanny through a critical—indeed, decisive—essay by Freud. Following this origin, the chapter looks at how phenomenology receives the uncanny, both explicitly in the work of Heidegger, but also in a more diffused sense in Merleau-Ponty. With this foundation established, it then plots some of the "applications" of the uncanny in contemporary phenomenology, especially in the field of the medical humanities where the concept of the "uncanny body" has proved pivotal.