The New Normal – Reflection on Domestic Violence Through Freudian “Uncanny” and Kristevian “Abjection”
The New Normal – Reflection on Domestic Violence Through Freudian “Uncanny” and Kristevian “Abjection”

Summary/Abstract: Social distancing measures imposed as an attempt to manage the health emergency around Covid-19 have caused severe adverse effects in the psychosocial domain. Contradictory messages and recommendations to limit social interactions and keep to the boundaries of a household put an unexpected tension on families and individuals. Alarming reports of increasing social tension, aggression and especially domestic violence were issued in many European countries. The present paper is an attempt to reflect on aggressiveness and violence directed to one specific other – the other who is at home, that very same other who is supposedly staying closer both physically and emotionally. Psychoanalytic theory and two concepts are used as points of reference. The uncanny (Das Unheimliche) introduced in 1919 by Sigmund Freud is capturing the idea of the menacing aspect of the most familiar things, whereas Julia Kristeva’s abject sheds light on the inherent tension around metaphorical and real boundaries and the potential threat of a breakdown. Some arguments are given in favor of the hypothesis that in the realm of the psychic, the so called “normal” (both old, and new) is unproductive point of reference but the moral and epistemological dimensions of human experiences and acts are still relevant.

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