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The double refers to a [[representation]] of the ego that can assume various forms (shadow, [[reflection]], portrait, double, twin) that is found in [[primitive]] [[animism]] as a [[narcissistic]] extension and [[guarantee]] of immortality, but which, with the [[withdrawal]] of [[narcissism]], becomes a foreshadowing of [[death]], a source of criticism and [[persecution]]. The [[figure]] of the double dates back to primitive civilizations, as shown in legend, but it is also found throughout [[literature]]. It was Otto Rank who in his essay on the double (1914) was the first to develop this [[idea]] in [[psychoanalysis]], and Sigmund [[Freud]] [[quotes]] him at length in "The [[Uncanny]]" (1919). However, the idea of the doubling of [[consciousness]] is [[present]] in his first [[texts]] on [[hysteria]] (1893, 1895), and the [[unconscious]] itself is introduced by Freud as a second consciousness capable of producing [[dreams]], [[parapraxes]], and so on. The theme of the double is taken up by Freud and integrated in his [[concept]] of the uncanny. "The 'uncanny' is that [[form]] of [[terror]] that leads back to something long known to us, once very familiar" (1919), but has become terrifying because it corresponds to something [[repressed]] that has returned. "The double," Freud wrote citing Heinrich Heine, "has become an [[image]] of terror, just as, after the collapse of their [[religion]], the gods turned into demons." (1910). Rank's study of the double has two aspects: anthropological and psychopathological, the latter [[being]] approached through literature and the [[personality]] of authors. For [[anthropology]], the double is omnipresent as a representation of the soul and therefore a [[guarantor]] of survival. It also helps us [[understand]] the [[nature]] of sacrifice, such as the cannibalistic [[incorporation]] of the son by the [[father]] (Chronos) because the son has drawn to himself the father's image or shadow. The double is similarly the origin of certain taboos, and Rank [[notes]] the evolution between the narcissistic [[claim]] of immortality and the acceptance of the genetic continuity of [[parents]] through their [[children]], which is at the origin of [[totemism]]. "It is no longer the double itself (the shadow) that continues to live but the spirit of a [[dead]] elder who is reborn in the embryo" (Rank, 1914). In literature (E.T.A. Hoffmann, Edgar Allen Poe, Guy de Maupassant, Alfred de Musset, Fyodor Dostoevsky), Rank points out the description of a [[paranoid]] [[state]] revolving around the persecution of the ego by its double and compares these [[imaginary]] creations to their authors' [[symptoms]], through which the theme of the double reveals a psychopathological [[dimension]] (epilepsy, [[splitting]] of the personality). Similarly, Freud noted that an older form of narcissism that has been overcome can continue to have an effect by changing into a "[[moral]] [[conscience]]" susceptible of being [[split]] off from the ego, as seen, for example, in [[delusions]] of being watched. The double is also found, although on a different plane, in [[real]] or imagined twins and, more generally, in twin brothers. The [[paradox]] of [[identity]] versus [[alterity]] arises here together with—in the [[case]] of the doubles of [[myth]] who are not brothers ([[Achilles]] and Patroclus, Orestes and Pylades)—the narcissistic foundations of [[friendship]]. This can be contrasted with the [[tragic]] destiny of [[Narcissus]], who drowned while [[looking]] at his own reflection. The theme of the double appears, therefore, to be susceptible to very broad [[interpretation]], similar to the [[primal]] narcissism from which it originated. ==See Also==* [[The Uncanny]] ==References==<references/>#redirect [[DoubleFreud, Sigmund]] (1919h). TheUncanny. SE, 17: 217-256. [[Category:New]][[Category:Enotes]]
