Freud defines the "uncanny" as the sensation that something is simulatenously familiar and strange at once, resulting in a feeling of unpleasant discomfort.

Shklovsky's concept of defamiliarizaton shares the sense of both the common and strange, but is fundamentally differerent.  By forcing his readers to see familiar things in uncommon ways, the common becomes strange:  discomfort is the goal, not something to be avoided.   Many of the artistic movements of the 20th century, such as Dadaism, owe a great debt to Skklovsky.