Das Unheimliche and the political instrumentalization of anxiety: O Das Unheimliche e a instrumentalização política da ansiedade

This article investigates how the Freudian concept of the Unheimliche (the uncanny) sheds light to processes of production of anxiety within the context of social media and neoliberal governmentality. The Unheimliche is thus analyzed as one of the possible effects caused by digital apparatuses, especially when employed as tools for political manipulation by systematically constructing and deploying negative affective experiences. Following on previous studies, this piece examines how the Freudian concept sheds light to some manners to deliberately undermine the “ground of common reality”. This strategy produces a profound sense of uncanniness— characterized by estrangement, nuisance, and a discomfiting familiarity—which erodes shared epistemic foundations. The discussion centers on Freud’s “Das Unheimliche” to theorize this process, positing that generating groundlessness and helplessness serves to dismantle established consensual knowledge and social bonds. We conclude that this engineered affective cluster is a central mechanism in neoliberal governance, preparing subjects for the acceptance of new, authoritarian frames of belief and charismatic leadership. The digital uncanny is thus analyzed not merely as an effect but as a deliberate political technology for reshaping the heart and soul of the contemporary social sphere.