“Doppelganger” comes from German, combining Doppel (double) with Gänger (goer). Sometimes it’s translated as “double-walker,” and I can tell you that having a double walking around is a profoundly unsettling experience. Uncanny, a feeling Sigmund Freud described as “that species of the frightening that goes back to what was once well known and had long been familiar”—but is suddenly alien. The uncanniness provoked by doppelgangers is particularly acute because the thing that becomes unfamiliar is you. A person who has a doppelganger, Freud wrote, “may identify himself with another and so become unsure of his true self.” He wasn’t right about everything, but he was right about that.

DEFINE: Defines 'doppelganger' and links it to Freud's concept of the uncanny and self-uncertainty. QUESTION: Why is the double-walker experience specifically 'profoundly unsettling' — is it rooted in self-recognition failures?

Naomi Klein, Doppelganger, loc. 14