A General Introduction to PsychoanalysisFreud, Sigmund
Science
A General Introduction to Psychoanalysis
Freud, Sigmund
Psychoanalysis
Let me show you by another case that the situation is really as we
expect it to be. Forgetting proper names is really a splendid example
for the case of dream analysis; only here there is present in one person
what in the dream interpretation is divided between two persons. Though
I have forgotten a name temporarily I still retain the certainty that I
know the name; that certainty which we could acquire for the dreamer
only by way of the Bernheim experiment. The forgotten name, however, is
not accessible. Cogitation, no matter how strenuous, does not help.
Experience soon tells me that. But I am able each time to find one or
more substitute names for the forgotten name. If such a substitute name
occurs to me spontaneously then the correspondence between this
situation and that of the dream analysis first becomes evident. Nor is
the dream element the real thing, but only a substitute for something
else, for what particular thing I do not know, but am to discover by
means of the dream analysis. The difference lies only in this, that in
forgetting a name I recognize the substitute automatically as
unsuitable, while in the dream element we must acquire this
interpretation with great labor. When a name is forgotten, too, there
is a way to go from the substitute to the unknown reality, to arrive at
the forgotten name. If I centre my attention on the substitute name and
allow further associations to accumulate, I arrive in a more or less
roundabout way at the forgotten name, and discover that the spontaneous
substitute names, together with those called up by me, have a certain
connection with the forgotten name, were conditioned by it.
I want to show you an analysis of this type. One day I noticed that I
could not recall the name of the little country in the Riviera of which
Monte Carlo is the capital. It is very annoying, but it is true. I steep
myself in all my knowledge about this country, think of Prince Albert,
of the house of Lusignan, of his marriages, his preference for deep-sea
study, and anything else I can think of, but to no avail. So I give up
the thinking, and in place of the lost name allow substitute names to
suggest themselves. They come quickly--Monte Carlo itself, then
Piedmont, Albania, Montevideo, Colico. Albania is the first to attract
my attention, it is replaced by Montenegro, probably because of the
contrast between black and white. Then I see that four of these
substitutes contain the same syllable _mon_. I suddenly have the
forgotten word, and cry aloud, "_Monaco_." The substitutes really
originated in the forgotten word, the four first from the first
syllable, the last brings back the sequence of syllables and the entire
final syllable. In addition, I am also able easily to discover what it
was that took the name from my memory for a time. Monaco is also the
Italian name of Munich; this latter town exerted the inhibiting
influence.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Elsewhere in the archive
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account