There is no clowning about it!

Abstract

The compelling nature and effectiveness of clowns and their heavily made-up faces could thus be traced back —among others— to the very early experiences of childhood, experiences that have left memories of satisfaction and laughter tinged with the knowledge that something else is going on beneath the smiles, the caring and the love. Beyond the mask of motherhood lurks a desire that cannot be overlooked, the unknown desire of an Other that causes anxiety in the subject who is confronted with it. Clowns —albeit perfectly friendly ones— thus always carry about them a feeling of the uncanny that Freud described in his work.