According to the Johns Hopkins Medicine website, schizophrenia is "a mental illness that usually strikes in late adolescence or early childhood." early adulthood, but which can occur at any time. life” which is characterized by “delusions, hallucinations, bizarre behavior and disorganized speech” among other symptoms. Schizophrenia is, at its core, an alteration of a person's perception of reality through somatic means and, when observed by a psychologically healthy individual, can be quite disturbing. After all, seeing someone whose reality is fractured causes us to doubt our own reality, even if only in a fleeting thought. In Hoffmann's "The Sandman", there is a recurring theme of the uncanny which is commented on by both Sigmund Freud and Ernst Jentsch, who attempt to explain the uncanny in different ways by highlighting events and images that they believe play a key role in its creation. I would argue, however, that the uncanny is a more universal theme in the story and likewise, its source will be much more general. In the course of this article, I intend to prove that the source of the uncanny is the fact that the reader doubts the reality presented in the text in the same way that one would doubt the reality perceived by a schizophrenic . This is because the narrator suffers from schizophrenia and possible dissociative personality disorder. Additionally, the events of the short story occur solely in the twisted mind of the narrator and represent a series of psychic manifestations that were most likely imagined as a defense mechanism to cope with the traumatic loss of his father and brothers and sisters. I understand that now you may be surprised by the outrageous claim I have made and indeed there appears to be middle of paper......the destruction of the main source of dissonance, "Coppelius [disappears]" (Hoffmann, 214) and order is restored to the narrator's shattered psyche. The narrator, however, remains prey to schizophrenia, as he still speaks of Clara as an individual, but is relieved of the conflict that her poorly repressed fears had caused her throughout her life noting that "Clara had been seen sitting hand in hand with a pleasant gentleman, while two bright boys played at her feet (Hoffmann, 214) Perhaps." that the narrator finally found some semblance of peace and happiness in his broken perception. Works Cited “What is Schizophrenia? Johns Hopkins Medicine, based in Baltimore, Maryland. “The Sand-Man,” in The Best Tales of Hoffman, ed. E. F. Bleiler (New York: Dover)., 1967).