Abstract

In this paper, we argue that Derrida’s account of the uncanny experience of being haunted by a specter reveals consciousness to be constitutively haunted. From Derrida’s account in Specters of Marx, we locate the cause to the possibility of haunting from the inability to complete a so-called work of mourning. We note primarily the development of Derrida’s account of specters with respect to the psychoanalytic distinction between mourning and melancholia. We go on to compare Derrida’s characterization of a haunted subject to Hegel’s conception of Unhappy Consciousness to discuss the possibility for a haunted consciousness to be assimilated into a community. We present Derrida’s resistance to a community of spirit as a reminder to be aware of specters. We contend that by minding specters, we learn how to live with them in a community of both the living and the dead.