A General Introduction to PsychoanalysisFreud, Sigmund
Science
A General Introduction to Psychoanalysis
Freud, Sigmund
Psychoanalysis
In the examples familiar to you, which give the impression of
contraction and abbreviation, it is a question of a correction, an
addition or continuation by which the second tendency manifests itself
together with the first. "Things were revealed, but better say it right
out, they were _filthy_, therefore, things were _refiled_."[18] "The
people who understand this topic can be counted on the _fingers of one
hand_, but no, there is really only _one_ who understands it; therefore,
counted _on one finger_." Or, "My husband may eat and drink whatever
_he_ wants. But you know very well that _I_ don't permit him to want
anything; therefore he may eat and drink whatever _I want_." In all
these cases, therefore, the slip arises from the content of the
intention itself, or is connected with it.
The other type of relationship between the two interfering intentions
seems strange. If the interfering intention has nothing to do with the
content of the one interfered with, where then does it come from and how
does it happen to make itself manifest as interference just at that
point? The observation which alone can furnish an answer here,
recognizes the fact that the interference originates in a thought
process which has just previously occupied the person in question and
which then has that after-effect, irrespective of whether it has already
found expression in speech or not. It is therefore really to be
designated as perseveration, but not necessarily as the perseveration of
spoken words. Here also there is no lack of an associative connection
between the interfering and the interfered with, yet it is not given in
the content, but artificially restored, often by means of forced
connecting links.
Here is a simple example of this, which I myself observed. In our
beautiful Dolomites, I meet two Viennese ladies who are gotten up as
tourists. I accompany them a short distance and we discuss the
pleasures, but also the difficulties of the tourist's mode of life. One
lady admits this way of spending the day entails much discomfort. "It is
true," she says, "that it is not at all pleasant, when one has tramped
all day in the sun, and waist and shirt are soaked through." At this
point in this sentence she suddenly has to overcome a slight hesitancy.
Then she continues: "But then, when one gets _nach Hose_, and can
change...."[19] We did not analyze this slip, but I am sure you can
easily understand it. The lady wanted to make the enumeration more
complete and to say, "Waist, shirt and drawers." From motives of
propriety, the mention of the drawers (Hose) was suppressed, but in the
next sentence of quite independent content the unuttered word came to
light as a distortion of the similar word, house (Hause).
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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