The Double

A Psychoanalytic Study

Otto Rank, Harry Tucker Jr.

• Publisher: The University of North Carolina Press
• Year: 2012
• Print ISBN: 9780807897980, 9780807811559
• eBook ISBN: 9781469610214
• Topic: Psychology
• Subtopic: History & Theory in Psychology
• Index: Psychology

Alive, fresh, and stimulating, the theme of The Double comprises the issues of identity, narcissism, and the fear of death — actually the core of human existence. Rank’s book is primarily a study of the double as it appeared in striking examples in German, French, Russian, English, and American literature from Goethe to Oscar Wilde.

Originally published in 1971.

A UNC Press Enduring Edition — UNC Press Enduring Editions use the latest in digital technology to make available again books from our distinguished backlist that were previously out of print. These editions are published unaltered from the original, and are presented in affordable paperback formats, bringing readers both historical and cultural value.

IV. The Double in Anthropology

Man’s shadow, I thought, is his vanity.

NIETZSCHE

Our point of departure will be those superstitious notions associated with the shadow which even today are encountered among us and which writers—for example, Chamisso, Andersen, and Goethe—could consciously utilize.

Quite generally known in all of Germany, Austria, and Yugoslavia is a test made on Christmas Eve or New Year’s Eve: whoever casts no shadow on the wall of the room by lamplight, or whose shadow is headless, must die inside of a year.¹ There is a similar belief among the Jews that whoever walks by moonlight in the seventh night of Whitsuntide, and whose shadow is headless, will die that same year.² There is a saying in the German provinces that stepping upon ones own shadow is a sign of death.”³ Contrasting with the belief that whoever casts no shadow must die is a German belief that whoever sees his shadow as a duple during Epiphany must die.⁴ Various theories, some of them rather complicated, have been offered to explain this idea. We shall single out the one referring to the belief in a guardian spirit.⁵

From this shadow-superstition, some scholars believe, developed the belief in a guardian spirit, which in its turn is closely related to the double-motif.⁶ Rochholz [see n. 2] takes the shadow following his [sic] body to be the original content of the stories about second sight, visions of oneself, the shadow in the armchair, the double, and the apparition lying in one’s bed.⁷ As time passes, the shadow which survives the grave becomes the double which is born with every child.⁸ Pradel [see n. 3] finds an explanation for the belief in the disastrous effect of the duple shadow in the idea that one’s guardian angel appears at the hour of death and joins one’s shadow.⁹ Here lies the root of the idea important to our theme: that the double who catches sight of himself must die within a year.¹⁰ Rochholz, who has especially been concerned with the belief in guardian spirits, thinks that the meaning of such spirits as beneficient was the original one and that only gradually did their harmful (death) meaning develop along with the strengthening of the belief in a life after death.¹¹ “So an individual’s shadow, which in his lifetime had been a helpful attendant spirit,¹² must shrivel into a terrifying and persecuting specter that torments its protege and chases him unto death” (Rochholz [see n. 2] ).¹³ How extensively this occurs will become clear in the psychological discussion of the whole topic.

These superstitious notions and fears of modern civilized nations concerning the shadow have their counterpart in numerous and widespread prohibitions (taboos) of savages which refer to the shadow. From Frazer’s rich collection of material, we realize that our “superstition” finds an actual counterpart in the “belief” of savages.¹⁴ A large number of primitive peoples believe that every injury inflicted upon the shadow also harms its owner (Frazer, p. 78), thereby opening wide the door to necromancy and magic. It is noteworthy that in some of the literary works we have discussed an echo of magical influence can be recognized in the death of the main character at the wounding of his reflection, portrait, or double.¹⁵ According to Negelein, “the attempt to destroy persons by wounding their doubles is widely known, even from antiquity” [sic]. Also, according to Hindu belief, one destroys an enemy by stabbing his picture or shadow in the heart (Oldenberg, Veda, p. 508 [see n. 80]).¹⁶

Primitive peoples have no end of special taboos relating to the shadow. They take care not to let their shadows fall upon certain objects (especially foods); they fear even the shadows of other people (especially pregnant women, mothers-in-law, etc.; see Frazer, pp. 83 ff.); and they pay heed that no one steps upon their shadows. On the Solomons, east of New Guinea, every native who steps upon the King’s shadow is punished with death (Rochholz, p. 114). The same is true in New Georgia (Pradel, p. 21) and among the Kaffirs (Frazer, p. 83). Primitive peoples are also especially careful not to let their shadows fall upon a corpse or its grave, and for this reason funerals very often took place at night (Frazer, p. 80).

The meaning of death in all these events is reduced to the fear of illness or other harm. Whoever casts no shadow, dies; whoever has a small or faint shadow is ill, while a well-outlined shadow indicates recovery (Pradel). Such tests for health were really made, and many peoples even nowadays carry the sick out into the sunlight in order to lure back their expiring souls with their shadows. With the opposite intention, the inhabitants of Amboyna [Amboina, Ambon] and Uliase, two islands on the Equator, never leave their houses at noon, because in this location their shadows disappear and they are afraid of losing their souls along with them (Frazer, p. 87). Relevant here are the notions about the short and the long shadows, the small and the lengthening ones, on which Goethe’s¹⁷ and Andersen’s fairy tales are based, as is the poem by Stevenson-Dehmel. The belief that the health and strength of a person increase with the length of his shadow (Frazer, pp. 86 f.)¹⁸ pertains here, just as does the distinction of the Zulus between the long shadow of a person, which becomes an ancestral spirit, and the short, which remains with the deceased.

Attached to this belief is another superstition, associated with the rebirth of the father in the son. Savages who believe that the soul of the father or grandfather is reborn in the child fear, according to Frazer (p. 88), too great a resemblance of the child to his parents.¹⁹ Should a child strikingly resemble its father, the latter must soon die, since the child has adopted his image or silhouette. The same holds for the name, which the primitive views as an essential part of the personality. In European culture the belief is still retained that if two offspring of the same family bear the same name, one must die.²⁰ We recall here the same “nomenphobia” in Poe’s William Wilson and can also understand, on the basis of “name magic,” the invocation of spirits by calling their names.²¹

According to Freud, all tabooed objects have an ambivalent character, and signs pointing to this are also not lacking in shadow-concepts. The ideas of rebirth of the paternal shade in the child, just pointed out, lead to the already-mentioned notions of the shadow as a protective spirit born simultaneously with the child. In direct contrast to the ideas of death in shadow-superstition are the ideas—even though much less current—of the shadow as a fecundating agent (Pradel, pp. 25 f.). The image of the shadow of death surrounding mankind finds its opposite Biblical expression in the Annunciation, which promises Mary, though virginal, a son, for δ

υαμις

φ

στου

πισχι

σει σοι (“the power of the Most High shall overshadow thee,” Luke 1:15 [“virtus Altissimi obumbrabit tibi,” Luc. 1:35]).

We note that St. Augustine and other patristic fathers see in the expression

πισχι

σει the concept of coolness as the opposite to sensual procreation. Pradel relevantly cites the expression, “Just be quiet; you aren’t overshadowed by the Holy Spirit.” From this basis he adduces a Tahitian myth, according to which the goddess Hina becomes pregnant from the shadow of a breadfruit tree which her father Taaroa shook.²² The taboos of the mother-in-law’s shadow, which Frazer cites, are obviously intended to prevent such an impregnation by means of a shadow.²³ Thus, for example, among the natives of South Australia a ground for divorce occurs when the husband’s shadow accidently falls upon his mother-in-law. In Central India there is a general fear of being impregnated by a shadow, and pregnant women avoid contact with a man’s shadow since it might cause her child to resemble him (Frazer, “The Belief . . . ,” p. 93). When we compare these fancies with those of the increasing and decreasing shadow and with the correspondingly variable virility (the Samson motif), the symbolic representation of the shadow for male potency becomes evident. In its turn, it is related to one’s own regeneration in descendants, and hence to fertility.

Similar to Lenau’s ballad “Anna,” the concept of the shadow’s fertility is also the basis of Richard Strauss’ opera The Woman without a Shadow. The opera was derived from an Oriental source, and Hugo von Hofmannsthal wrote the libretto. Its focus is upon an Oriental princess [sic] whose father has incurred a terrible guilt. The guilt can be expiated (so prophesies a red falcon to the princess on her wedding day) only if there is prospect of her bearing a child within three years of the marriage. The years pass but the princess’s wish remains unfulfilled—she is a woman without a shadow. At the close of the third year, the red falcon reappears and grants a respite of five days. In this emergency, the nurse makes use of a ruse: she finds a young dyer who yearns for the blessing of children, refused him by his quarrelsome wife. Corresponding to a belief current in Eastern legends, the nurse intends to ...

Table of contents

• Cover Page
• The Double
• Copyright Page
• Dedication
• Preface
• Contents
• Introduction
• I. The Statement of the Problem
• II. Examples of the Double in Literature
• III. Biography as Background to Literature
• IV. The Double in Anthropology
• V. Narcissism and the Double
• Index