Psychoanalysis considers anguish as a fundamental emotion because it is a condition of the constitution of the subject. This emotion signals the existence of defense. In his text The Uncanny (1919), Freud asserts that anguish is triggered by the reappearance of something familiar that has been repressed. Based on the work by Lacan and other authors, this paper demonstrates that the familiar emotion that reappears in anguish is the real Other who interpellates the subject as an object of his enjoyment. The importance of interpellation of the Other will be deduced from fundamental linguistic evidence and the fact that the subject is initially the recipient of the discourse. It is argued that the concept of interpellation of the Other is a tool that can systematize the Freudian legacy as it offers a key principle, allowing us to conceive the secret nature of the uncanny. The paper aims to contribute to a broader understanding of the genesis of anguish because finding the determining factor of this emotion is a theoretically important task.
Lacan; Anguish; Uncanny; Interpellation