Not being at home. Jentsch and Freud, on the uncanny in the artificial world

Abstract

In this article we are interested in analysing the counterpoint between Ernst Jentsch and Sigmund Freud around the concept of the unheimlich. We are interested in exploring the concept of unheimlich, not in itself, nor in its relevance as a theoretical concept for psychoanalysis, but as the effect of an encounter with expressive artificial beings, something that both Jentsch and Freud discuss. Our long-term aim is to use this debate as an input to address the link between humans and increasingly widespread robotic entities, within the framework of a "psychology of technicity". With this in mind, we are interested in cutting out, emphasising and analysing what these two authors refer to as the psychic relationship that humans establish with artefacts when they acquire human forms, functions or expressions. Finally, we propose to establish a comparison between a scientistic and cognitivist version of the human-artefact link (Jentsch’s) and a mythological and psychoanalytical view (Freud’s), with the aim of extrapolating this tension to contemporary phenomena in an informational cyberanimist scenario.