An Uncanny Fading of a Shadow: Psychoanalytic Reflections on the Film “Cast No Shadow”

Abstract

A selective description and a discussion of a contemporary Canadian film
are presented. Through an elaboration on depictions of the protagonist’s
psychic suffering in this work of fiction, the film discussion revisits classic
psychoanalytic perspectives on adolescent delinquent behaviour that have
contemporary relevance. Freud’s “The Uncanny” and its historical relation
to some fundamental clinical concepts such as superego and projective identification
are also considered, with reference to the influence of Clifford Scott
on Melanie Klein’s work and the origins of the latter concept.