A General Introduction to PsychoanalysisFreud, Sigmund
Science
A General Introduction to Psychoanalysis
Freud, Sigmund
Psychoanalysis
Forgetting proper names and foreign names as well as foreign words can
be traced in the same manner to a counter-intention which aims either
directly or indirectly at the name in question. I have already given you
an example of such direct antipathy. The indirect causation, however, is
particularly frequent and generally necessitates careful analysis for
its determination. Thus, for example, in war times which force us to
sacrifice so many of our former inclinations, the ability to recall
proper names also suffers severely in consequence of the most peculiar
connections. A short time ago it happened that I could not reproduce the
name of that harmless Moravian city of Bisenz, and analysis showed that
no direct dislike was to blame, but rather the sound resemblance to the
name of the Bisenzi palace in Orrieto, in which I used to wish I might
live. As a motive for the antagonism to remembering the name, we here
encounter for the first time a principle which will later disclose to us
its whole tremendous significance in the causation of neurotic symptoms,
viz., the aversion on the part of the memory to remembering anything
which is connected with unpleasant experience and which would revive
this unpleasantness by a reproduction. This intention of avoiding
unpleasantness in recollections of other psychic acts, the psychic
flight from unpleasantness, we may recognize as the ultimate effective
motive not only for the forgetting of names, but also for many other
errors, such as omissions of action, etc.
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