The sand man in psychoanalysis

He Sandman It is a story written in 1817 by Ernest T.TO. Hoffman and that Sigmund Freud took to introduce the concept of the sinister or the ominous, in psychoanalysis.

This story belongs to the Hoffman Night Tales Collection and is listed as Gothic horror literature.

This chilling story, with the play of the different senses that can take the term 'sinister', served Freud to explain a paradox in which something that is terrifying, is familiar at the same time.

The sinister or orMinoso In Freud

According to the author Felipe Galeano, in his study entitled: The ominos and the look, the real in the sand man, Freud refers, on the one hand, to the strange, to the foreigner, to what is outside the subject, but that, on the other hand, evokes what is not strange at all, but intimate and own.

But how could this be? To begin, the study in Freud addresses this issue was published in 1919, where it emphasizes that The ominous or sinister to be part of the terrifying, or what causes anguish and horror.

Thus, the ominous is part of the terrific that highlights the familiar, the old, something that has been underlying for a long time, and for this, it is convenient to bring to the fore.

In the story, starring Nataniel, there are memories of his childhood that torment him and lead him to the edge of madness (advancing more would not be the most indicated). The central character can experience joy, but fails to get rid of all those reminiscences related to the mysterious and horrendous death of his father.

That is just a part of the terror that Hoffman infuses with his story. Well, the truth that the title of the same, The Sandman, It brings another horror, and it was that to take early children to bed, the mother threatened them that "the man of sand" would come, which was a evil being.

Nataniel interrogates his mother for the mysterious man, and she explains that she has no place in reality and is just a way of saying, but, a babysitter provided more information.

This babysitter explained to the young man who was a bad man who was looking for children who did not want to sleep, They threw sand in their eyes and they jumped full of blood from their orbits. Then, he kept them in a bag to take them to their children, who had peaks, such as owls, and ate them.

This narrative disturbed or had influence in the character's life for the rest of his life.

There are many conjectures and assumptions that can be extracted when analyzing this story, but, from the Freud psychoanalytic perspective some approaches some approaches.

The sinister for Freud

To be able to explain how something that is familiar becomes ominos, Freud analyzes the word of German origin Unheimlich, which is opposed to Heimlich, which translates as intimate or familiar.

In the case of Unheimlich, or the ominous, this awakens terror because it is not known. So that Heimlich becomes aheimlich, But, this word, as Freud also warns, has different senses, so there is a return to what is repressed.

This explanation could work to give an account of the people who today have some fears that are irrational, and apparently unknown, but that are actually repressed from their childhood, such as when they fear a non -existent being "within the closet", or "the Coco ”, among others, then, each culture has something with which to terrorize the little ones.

Returning to the Hoffman story, it is possible to note that there is much more to elucidate. For example, losing sight or hurting eyes is a child anguish that endures in adult life. Hence, many people say that they must take care of something "like their own eyes".

This fear of blindness can be equated, psychoanalytically, the anguish that produces castration.

It is worth mentioning that not everything unknown must produce terror, but it can become incident if this novelty is added that already exists repressed.

Nataniel reaches the ends of the ominous when he thinks he discover that the sand man is a character named Coppelius, a demonic who, according to him, was the one who killed his father and now pursues him, psychoticly.

To decipher this word of Unheimlich, It is worth remembering the definition that Shelling makes of him, for whom, Unheimlich It is everything that is destined to remain hidden or secret, but that comes to light, and there shows the face of the familiar.

Psychoanalysis has given us many concepts to think and analyze in depth, and the sinister is still one. Every day, there are more studies that venture to inquire about the enigmatic meaning of this word.

Assumptions and applications of Sigmund Freud's psychoanalytic therapy

Bibliography

• Arias, Felipe. (2009). The ominous and the look, the real in the man of sand. // The ominous and the look, The Real in the "Sandman" ... Affectio Societatis. 6.
• Freud, s. (1973). Cix. The sinister. Complete works, 3.
• Kristeva, J., & Vericat, I. (nineteen ninety six). Freud: "Heimlich/Unheimlich", the disturbing strangeness. Feminist debate, 13, 359-368.
• Oyarzún, p. (2003). The question of the sinister in Freud. Art Theory Magazine, (8), 53-94.