“In his essay on the uncanny, Das Unheimliche, Freud said that the uncanny is the only feeling which is more powerfully experienced in art than in life. If the genre required any justification, I should think this alone would serve as its credentials.” – Stanley Kubrick

Freud’s “Uncanny”

The following article contains several segments from Sigmund Freud’s “The Uncanny”. The full book can be read here:

http://www-rohan.sdsu.edu/~amtower/uncanny.html

Introduction:

In preparation for writing their script, Kubrick and co-author novelist Diane Johnson read Freud's essay "The Uncanny". Kubrick’s intention was to create a film in which the entire aesthetic and architectural construction was guided by Freud’s famous essay. As such, his use of doubles, mirrors, repetition, patterns, repression, numbers, the familiar, phantasms etc, all correspond to Freud’s ideas on The Uncanny, and how such mysterious feelings stem from man’s repressed animal instincts. Freud stated that our animal mind attaches “uncanny” or “magical” meaning to what are really ordinary events. We equate repetition and patterns with destiny and mysticism. Freud saw that man, as a collective group, still clung to primitive beliefs. As such, man tends to incorrectly rationalise events. Rather than investigate events logically, we repress them and perceive them as being Uncanny.

Thus, Kubrick's use of The Uncanny in The Shining is intentionally metaphorical. What Kubrick shows us throughout the film is not supernatural or mysterious, but rather, completely natural. Man's horrors aren't Uncanny, rather they're entirely normal. They aren't something to be explained away with mysticism, ghosts or magic, but to be fought off with logic and intelligence. We interpret these horrors as "bizzare", "horrific" and "odd" simply because we deny our issues and refuse to confront them.

As such, those looking for secret meanings and explanations for the mysticism in The Shining are lost in a maze of their own. Rather than see the truth behind man’s actions, they attempts to ascribe mystical meaning to numbers, events or symbols. Like Jack, they’ve succumbed to Freud’s repression. The rest of this article will contain excerpts from Freud’s essay. I will then provide brief comments under each segment in an attempt to show how Freud’s writings relate to Kubrick’s film.

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“The uncanny is something which is secretly familiar, which has undergone repression and then returned from it. Everything that is uncanny fulfils this condition.” – Freud

This is pretty self-explanatory. Freud believed that uncanny feelings arose when things which we perceive as being normal and commonplace, suddenly feel odd or weird. Uncanny feelings arise when something familiar (a father, a house, a family member), starts to act strange.

In “The Shining”, everything is familiar. We’ve been given a tour of the Hotel and the family members are all intimately familiar with one another. Only once Freud’s repression begins, do Uncanny feelings germinate.

“There is no question, therefore, of any intellectual uncertainty here: we know now that we are not supposed to be looking on at the products of a madman's imagination, behind which we, with the superiority of rational minds, are able to detect the sober truth; and yet this knowledge does not lessen the impression of uncanniness in the least degree. The theory of intellectual uncertainty is thus incapable of explaining that impression.” – Freud

Kubrick flirts with this idea in the film as well. We don’t know whether the ghosts are products of Jack’s imagination or real apparitions. Our rational minds are searching for an explanation. The uncanniness is simply derived from our own uncertainty.

“Death and the re-animation of the dead are typically represented as uncanny themes.” - Freud

The dead twins, the corpse in the bathtub and the resurrected caretakers, are all uncanny. Who are they? Why are they still alive? Where do they come from? Kubrick provides no meaning. Some turn to King’s book in an attempt to provide some answer, but the fact is, Kubrick intended these reanimated bodies to be uncanny and mysterious.

“Towards the end of the book the reader is told the facts, hitherto concealed from him, from which the action springs; with the result, not that he is at last enlightened, but that he falls into a state of complete bewilderment. The author has piled up too much material of the same kind. In consequence one’s grasp of the story as a whole suffers, though not the impression it makes.” – Freud

Here, Freud is talking about an "uncanny ending". He cites a work of fiction in which a book ends on an uncanny note. The reader is enlightened, given what he thinks is a “clue” or “explanation”, but is still left in a state of complete bewilderment. This "uncanny ending" leaves the reader with a sense of foreboding and supernatural mystery.

“Eyes Wide Shut” and “The Shining” both end on Uncanny notes. One’s grasp of the story is loosened. The “resolution” simply doesn’t resolve anything. But this is only a superficial feeling, as Kubrick’s endings are always questions or challenges posed directly to the audience. He’s not here to confuse you, rather he wants you to reconsider and rethink the film you’ve just seen.

“The Uncanny is something hidden which ought to have remained missed but which is brought to light.” – Freud

As such, Kubrick bathes his film in hidden numbers, repetitions and repeated patterns, knowing that they will lead to Uncanny feelings when discovered. The audience is left confused and enticed by this mystery and then attempts to bring these “mysteries to light” by creating meaning.

“The German word 'unheimlich'is obviously the opposite of 'heimlich' ['homely'], 'heimisch' ['native'] the opposite of what is familiar; and we are tempted to conclude that what is 'uncanny' is frightening precisely because it is not known and familiar.” – Freud

Here Freud is simply stating that for something to be uncanny it must be both familiar and unknown. David Lynch is a master of this, embedding the normal with frightening ambiguity.

“These themes are all concerned with the phenomenon of the ‘double’, which appears in every shape and in every degree of development. Thus we have characters who are to be considered identical because they look alike. This relation is accentuated by mental processes leaping from one of these characters to another — by what we should call telepathy —, so that the one possesses knowledge, feelings and experience in common with the other.” – Freud

In his essays, Freud notes that the uncanny often appears in relation with “the double”. Danny and Tony, the twins, the mirrors, the dual compositions, the two boilers, the two Snowcats, the two Volkswagen’s, the two women, the two butlers, the two bears etc…Kubrick has built the film's entire aesthetic fabric around the notion of doubles being uncanny and spooky.

But Kubrick then ascribes his own meaning to these dualities. Freud mentions that doubles “possess knowledge, feelings and experiences common with one another”. In the film, this is articulated by Jack sharing “experiences” with his doppelgangers. Thus the idea of the double allow Kubrick to give us something that is superficially uncanny, whilst letting him play with his larger metaphors, ie- the double is symbolic of man’s ancestors, all of whom inherit his primal violence (knowledge,feelings,experiences) and repression.

“Or it is marked by the fact that the subject identifies himself with someone else, so that he is in doubt as to which his self is, or substitutes the extraneous self for his own. In other words, there is a doubling, dividing and interchanging of the self. And finally there is the constant recurrence of the same thing - the repetition of the same features or character-traits or vicissitudes, of the same crimes, or even the same names through several consecutive generations.” – Freud

Jack identifies with the apparitions and states that he feels like he’s always been at the Overlook. Like the twins, he feels as though he’s been at the overlook “forever and ever”. Jack is in doubt over his own identity. He seems to be composed of several different personalities (Delbert Grady, Charles Grady, 1921 photograph, present Jack). Kubrick thus splits Jack’s persona into 4 Jack’s. As Freud says, there is a doubling, dividing and interchanging of the self.

But why would Kubrick do this? The answer is in Freud’s next line: “Mankind is trapped in a constant recurrence of the same thing. The repetition of the same features, character traits and the same crimes, or even the same names through several generations.”

“The theme of the ‘double’ has been very thoroughly treated by Otto Rank (1914). He has gone into the connections which the ‘double’ has with reflections in mirrors, with shadows, with guardian spirits, with the belief in the soul and with the fear of death.” - Freud

Rank sees the mirror as a gateways into the soul. Man’s reflection is uncanny and scary and he refuses to look at his double. In the film, Jack constantly “slashes” at mirrors, turns his back to them, or blocks them with alcohol. He can not face his real double (himself).

“For the ‘double’ was originally an insurance against the destruction of the ego, an ‘energetic denial of the power of death’, as Rank says; and probably the ‘immortal’ soul was the first ‘double’ of the body.” – Freud.

Thus, Jack creates double personas to insure against the destruction of his ego. No I am not an abusive father, Jack says, and promptly creates a double in the gold room. Psychologically, these apparitions serve to mend Jack’s fragile view of himself. Freud also says that they are a “denial of the power of death”. Similarly, Jack (man) conquers death (immortalised in photograph) by becoming the double.

“This invention of doubling as a preservation against extinction has its counterpart in the language of dreams, which is fond of representing castration by a doubling or multiplication of a genital symbol. The same desire led the Ancient Egyptians to develop the art of making images of the dead in lasting materials. Such ideas, however, have sprung from the soil of unbounded self-love, from the primary narcissism which dominates the mind of the child and of primitive man. But when this stage has been surmounted, the ‘double’ reverses its aspect. From having been an assurance of immortality, it becomes the uncanny harbinger of death.” - Freud

For a Kubrick film, the phallic imagery in The Shining is very subtle. The powerful sexual imagery of Dr Strangelove, Clockwork Orange and 2001: A Space Odyssey are all gone, replaced with far subtler castration imagery (penis carpets, phallic objects, phallic bathtub facade).

Freud states that the double is an attempt by the self to insure against destruction. People make images of themselves in an attempt to “live forever and ever”. Freud also states that the genital symbol, when doubled, is symbolic of castration.

Freud believed that “primitive men” and “childish people” are prone to narcissism and self love. As such, they create images of themselves to starve off death. Once the primitive stage has been surmounted, however, the double becomes a harbinger of death. One can see this transformation happening in The Shining, where Jack goes from a whiney man who attempts to shake off all responsibilities, to one who “assumes the responsibility and duty to kill”. Once he comes out of the locked pantry, Jack assumes Freud’s “uncanny harbinger of death” role. He becomes the murderous caretakers who lived before.

“The idea of the ‘double’ does not necessarily disappear with the passing of primary narcissism, for it can receive fresh meaning from the later stages of the ego’s development. A special agency is slowly formed there, which is able to stand over against the rest of the ego, which has the function of observing and criticizing the self and of exercising a censorship within the mind, and which we become aware of as our ‘conscience’. In the pathological case of delusions of being watched, this mental agency becomes isolated, dissociated from the ego, and discernible to the physician’s eye. The fact that an agency of this kind exists, which is able to treat the rest of the ego like an object — the fact, that is, that man is capable of self-observation — renders it possible to invest the old idea of a ‘double’ with a new meaning and to ascribe a number of things to it — above all, those things which seem to self-criticism to belong to the old surmounted narcissism of earliest times.”

Jack possesses no self-criticism. There is simply no critical eye on him, as such he “belongs to the old surmounted narcissism of earlier times”. When Wendy is confronted with the “physician’s eye” (doctor) she likewise promptly denies Jack’s abusive nature.

Freud also states that man is capable of self observation and that this act of studying prevents man from creating negative doubles. Thus, it is the job of we the audiences to criticise and transcend the Self.

“The factor of the repetition of the same thing will perhaps not appeal to everyone as a source of uncanny feeling. From what I have observed, this phenomenon does undoubtedly, subject to certain conditions and combined with certain circumstances, arouse an uncanny feeling, which, furthermore, recalls the sense of helplessness experienced in some dream-states.” – Freud

Here Freud is simply talking about how repetition (objects or events) cause uncanny feelings.

“If we take another class of things, it is easy to see that there, too, it is only this factor of involuntary repetition which surrounds what would otherwise by innocent enough with an uncanny atmosphere, and forces upon us the idea of something fateful and inescapable when otherwise we should have spoken only of ‘chance’. For instance, we naturally attach no importance to the event when we hand in an overcoat and get a cloakroom ticket with the number, let us say, 62; or when we find that our cabin on a ship bears that number. But the impression is altered if two such events, each in itself indifferent, happen close together — if we come across the number 62 several times in a single day, or if we begin to notice that everything which has a number — addresses, hotel rooms, compartments in railway trains — invariably has the same one, or at all events one which contains the same figures. We do feel this to be uncanny. And unless a man is utterly hardened and proof against the lure of superstition, he will be tempted to ascribe a secret meaning to this obstinate recurrence of a number; he will take it, perhaps, as an indication of the span of life allotted to him. Or suppose one is engaged in reading the works of the famous physiologist, Hering, and within the space of a few days receives two letters from two different countries, each from a person called Hering, though one has never before had any dealings with anyone of that name. Not long ago an ingenious scientist attempted to reduce coincidences of this kind to certain laws, and so deprive them of their uncanny effect. I will not venture to decide whether he has succeeded or not.” – Freud

Freud says that primitive man ascribes meaning to numbers, objects or events which are repeated. As such, Kubrick bathes his film in a semiotic language of repetition. The fact is not that these numbers have magical meaning, simply that they are Uncanny. The uncanniness of these symbollic repetitions is what is being contrasted with Jack’s repetitions, the intention being that we acknowledge and challenge Jack, rather than ascribe superstition to him.

Freud says, “unless a man is utterly hardened against the lure of superstition, he will be tempted to ascribe a secret meaning to this obstinate recurrence of a number”. Thus Kubrick challenges his audience not to accept the superstitious, but to see Jack/Grady/Delbert/Photo as something logical and horrific, rather than destined and mysterious.

“For it is possible to recognize the dominance in the unconscious mind of a 'compulsion to repeat' proceeding from the instinctual impulses and probably inherent in the very nature of the instincts — a compulsion powerful enough to overrule the pleasure principle, lending to certain aspects of the mind their daemonic character, and still very clearly expressed in the impulses of small children; a compulsion, too, which is responsible for a part of the course taken by the analyses of neurotic patients. All these considerations prepare us for the discovery that whatever reminds us of this inner 'compulsion to repeat' is perceived as uncanny.” – Freud

Kubrick swathes his film in repeated numerical patterns. Wendy swings the bat at Jack 42 times. Tony says “Redrum” 42 times. Danny looks up and sees the door of room 237 at exactly :42 minutes into the movie and Wendy finds Jack’s novel at exactly 1:42, her fingers stopping at line 21 in the typewriter.

Danny and Wendy watch “The Summer of 42” at exactly 1:21 minutes and the scene used by Kubrick is exactly :24 minutes into that movie. Likewise, “Redrum” is written on the door 2 separate times, combining a total of 24 lipstick strokes. The timecode in the last scene (2:21), corresponds to 21 pictures on the wall, the middle of which says 1921, a date which itself adds up to 24. Wendy also reveals 21 (or is it 12?) pages of Jack’s book and the staircase she lures him up is comprised of 42 steps.

Similarly, Danny says “REDRUM!” 42 times (in Tony’s voice) and Wendy tugs at the pantry latch 24 times. The use of 42, 24, 21 and 12 in a movie already filled with doublings and mirrors seems odd and uncanny and this is exactly the intention Kubrick hoped to create.

There is a guy who has created a blog specifically to document these weird occurrences:

http://jonnys53.blogspot.com/2007/06/what-you-may-or-may-not-have-seen.html

In my opinion, he’s a bit crazy and neurotic, succumbing to what Freud calls the “childish superstitious mentality”, ascribing “mayan conspiracies” to the Uncanny in a hope to resolve the mysteries of the film. Nevertheless, in his blog he points out quite a few numerical patterns which were obviously intended by Kubrick (he also points out lots of silly goofs and coincidences).

But as Freud says, it is the “compulsion to repress and repeat” coupled with an “inability to be rational and reject the superstitious” which is horrific, and not Kubrick’s semiotic fabric, which aims merely to symbolically reinforce Freud’s themes.

“It seems as if each one of us has been through a phase of individual development corresponding to this animistic stage in primitive men, that none of us has passed through it without preserving certain residues and traces of it which are still capable of manifesting themselves, and that everything which now strikes us as 'uncanny' fulfils the condition of touching those residues of animistic mental activity within us and bringing them to expression.” - Freud

Freud is saying that those who feel “the uncanny”, do so because they still have repressed primitive instincts. Freud states that our ancestor's fondness for superstition, religion and fables is largely what causes our belief in ghosts, apparitions and mysticism. Thus, our current irrational beliefs are largely due to the irrationalities of our ancestors. They’ve been passed on from one generation to the next, much as generational violence has been passed on in Kubrick’s film.

“An uncanny effect is often and easily produced when the distinction between imagination and reality is effaced, as when something that we have hitherto regarded as imaginary appears before us in reality, or when a symbol takes over the full functions of the thing it symbolizes, and so on. It is this factor which contributes not a little to the uncanny effect attaching to magical practices. The infantile element in this, which also dominates the minds of neurotics, is the over-accentuation of psychical reality in comparison with material reality — a feature closely allied to the belief in the omnipotence of thoughts.” – Freud

Freud states that an uncanny effect can often be seen when our imagination (ghosts) interacts with reality (opening pantry door). He then says that this is the moment when our “infantile and neurotic elements” start believing in magical practises.

As such, we focus on “psychical realities” and ignore the “material reality”, which is exactly Kubrick’s point. The film’s self referential ending (“I know my whole life through, I’ll never forget you" counterpointed with the sound of the audience leaving) highlights that the “material reality” or “metaphorical truth” of the film will be overlooked by those looking for psychic explanations and mystical answers.

Thus, whenever you hear somebody talking about “how did the door open?” or “who bruised Danny’s neck?” or “what does this or that mean”, you know they’re already lost in the maze. Unlike the apes at the start of 2001: A Space Odyssey, they’re unable to think in terms of conceptual metaphor.

“We -or our primitive forefathers- once believed that these possibilities (afterlife) were realities, and were convinced that they actually happened. Nowadays we no longer believe in them, we have surmounted these modes of thought; but we do not feel quite sure of our new beliefs, and the old ones still exist within us ready to seize upon any confirmation. As soon as something actually happens in our lives which seems to confirm the old, discarded beliefs we get a feeling of the uncanny. Conversely, anyone who has completely and finally rid himself of animistic beliefs will be insensible to this type of the uncanny. The most remarkable coincidences of wish and fulfilment, the most mysterious repetition of similar experiences in a particular place or on a particular date, the most deceptive sights and suspicious noises — none of these things will disconcert him or raise the kind of fear which can be described as ‘a fear of something uncanny’. The whole thing is purely an affair of ‘reality-testing’, a question of the material reality of the phenomena.”

Here Freud is basically stating that only those who are rid of primitive beliefs can see through the uncanny. These individuals shrug off deceptive sights, signs and repetitions, and see the underlying nature of truth.

In contrast, those who cling to the ways of our primitive forefathers, are doomed to believe in mysticism. Jack, who likewise clings to the ways of his ancestors, thus repeats his mistakes simply because he conjures up ghosts of the past. Ghosts which do not exist, but which he creates to affirm his own existence.

So Kubrick’s film is working on three levels:

1. The audience seeks to rationalise the “ghosts” in the film because they can’t see the underlying truth.

2. Jack creates ghosts because he refuses to face his own truth.

3. “Ghosts” and “Mystical explanations” are, according to Freud, created by those who cling to past superstition and refuse to face and acknowledge the truth of man.

“Where the uncanny comes from infantile complexes the question of material reality does not arise; its place is taken by psychical reality. What is involved is an actual repression of some content of thought and a return of this repressed content, not a cessation of belief in the reality of such a content.” - Freud

Infantile complexes arise through the repression of content.

In the film, there are countless examples of repression. Jack represses his child abuse, Wendy represses Jack’s alcoholism, Danny represses his violent father, Wendy represses her sexual inadequacy (bearsuit blowjob- Jack doesn’t want sex with her), Jack represses his lack of writing talent…etc etc.

“Our conclusion could then be stated thus: an uncanny experience occurs either when infantile complexes which have been repressed are once more revived by some impression, or when primitive beliefs which have been surmounted seem once more to be confirmed.” – Freud

Man has repressed infantile and primal complexes. Uncanny experiences occur when these repressed complexes are triggered. We see something, and suddenly our superstitious minds begin to wrongly interpret or assign mystical meaning to them. Rather than proceed logically we overlook the underlying truth.

Thus, Kubrick takes Freud’s understanding of the Uncanny and uses it as a metaphor for man wrongly ascribing uncanny feelings to what are natural horrors. Where Freud sees the uncanny as being the result of man’s repression of primitive superstition, Kubrick sees the uncanny as being the result of man’s repression of animal instincts.

- Jason "tieman" Francois (2008)

Batter up! America's two favourite sports, baseball and murder

30, making the Torrance’s 1st full day living there Halloween.

In the novel Mr. Ullman hires Grady.

In the movie, Ullman’s "predecessor" hires Grady.

Jack takes care of 1 furnace in the novel.

Wendy takes care of 2 furnaces in the movie.

In the novel Wendy reads a Victoria Holt Paperback.

In the movie Wendy reads The Catcher in the Rye.

Jack uses 1 typewriter in the novel.

Jack uses 2 typewriters in the film.

Danny sees REDRUM written in green in the book.

Danny sees REDRUM written in red in the film.

Reincarnation is not a part of the novel.

Reincarnation is a large part of the film.

Danny is 5 years old in the novel, 7 years old in the movie, a difference of 2 years.

The Grady girls are 6 and 8 in the novel, 8 and 10 in the film, a difference of 2 years.

In the novel, Danny has a closer relationship with Jack.

In the movie, Danny has a closer relationship with Wendy.

There’s no Gold Room in the novel.

There's a Gold Room in the film.

Jack meets Lloyd in the Colorado lounge.

Jack meets Lloyd in the Gold room.

In the novel, “not by the hair of my chiny chin chin” and “I’ll huff and I’ll puff” is said by the man in the dog costume. In the movie the man in the dog costume is only in one very mysterious shot and says absolutely nothing. His lines, however, have been given to Jack. See “Animal Friends” essay.

In the novel, Grady has only one name.

In the movie, Grady has two names.

In the novel, Larry Durkin knows Jack and Danny and doesn’t know Dick Hallorann.
In the movie it's the opposite. Durkin knows Dick Hallorann and doesn't know Jack or Danny.

In the novel, Wendy clobbers Jack with a wine bottle.

In the movie, Wendy clobbers Jack with a baseball bat.

Jack wields a mallet in the novel.

Jack wields an axe in the movie.

There are no twins in the novel.

In the movie there are multiple twins and pairs.

In the novel, Danny bolts the storeroom door with Jack inside.

In the movie Wendy bolts the storeroom door with Jack inside.

The Overlook has 4 floors in the novel.

The Overlook has 2 floors in the movie.

In the novel, the Overlook wants Danny because of his power.

In the movie, the Overlook wants Jack.

In the novel Jack was never previously at The Hotel.

In the film, it is suggested that Jack was “always the caretaker”

There is one version of the novel.

There are two versions of the film.

The novel was written by King in the Stanley Hotel.

The movie was written by Stanley Kubrick and Diane Johnson at Stanley Kubrick's estate.

In the novel Jack is burned to death in fire.

In the movie Jack is frozen to death in snow .

In King’s book, the family arrive in a red Volkswagon.

The only time a red Volkswagon shows up in Kubrick’s film, it’s on it’s head, upside down. Kubrick slyly acknowledging that he’s tipped King’s book upside down?