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Reflection and Shadow: The Double and the Narcissism in Hoffmann and Chamisso

Abstract

This is a qualitative research, in essay format, which performs the comparative study of two literary works, by A. Von Chamisso and E. T. A. Hoffmann, and an annotation in the latter’s diary to problematize the repercussion of some forms of destabilization of the Ego’s in the psychic dynamics of neurosis. The focus of the referred texts is on the phenomenon of the double in its negative form, that is, as the disappearance of the outer image that supports the Ego. The absences of the shadow and the reflection are understood as metaphorical representations of an alteration of the Ego that generates important repercussions on psychic homeostasis, above all in social relationships of exchange. Thus, we analyze the mention of optical instruments in Hoffmann’s diary to question the use of these devices as metapsychological models in psychoanalysis. Note, also, the participation of processes of aesthetic nature in the psychic dynamics of the uncanny, taking as reference the connection between Hoffmann’s short story and Stendhal’s account of his stay in Florence.

Keywords:
Double; Narcissism; Uncanny; Psychoanalysis; Literature

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