A General Introduction to PsychoanalysisFreud, Sigmund
Science
A General Introduction to Psychoanalysis
Freud, Sigmund
Psychoanalysis
Forgetting names does, however, seem to be especially facilitated
psycho-physiologically and therefore also occurs in cases in which the
interference of an unpleasantness-motive cannot be established. If
anyone once has a tendency to forget names, you can establish by
analytical investigation that he not only loses names because he himself
does not like them, or because they remind him of something he does not
like, but also because the same name in his mind belongs to another
chain of associations, with which he has more intimate relations. The
name is anchored there, as it were, and denied to the other associations
activated at the moment. If you will recall the tricks of mnemonic
technique you will ascertain with some surprise that one forgets names
in consequence of the same associations which one otherwise purposely
forms in order to save them from being forgotten. The most conspicuous
example of this is afforded by proper names of persons, which
conceivably enough must have very different psychic values for different
people. For example, take a first name, such as Theodore. To one of you
it will mean nothing special, to another it means the name of his
father, brother, friend, or his own name. Analytic experience will then
show you that the first person is not in danger of forgetting that a
certain stranger bears this name, while the latter will be constantly
inclined to withhold from the stranger this name which seems reserved
for intimate relationships. Let us now assume that this associative
inhibition can come into contact with the operation of the
unpleasantness-principle, and in addition with an indirect mechanism,
and you will be in a position to form a correct picture of the
complexity of causation of this temporary name-forgetting. An adequate
analysis that does justice to the facts, however, will completely
disclose these complications.
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