Association of ideas; Memory; Paragrammatism; Psychoanalysis; Psychology, Pathological; Repression (Psychology)
These as well as other similar experiences have caused me to think that
the actions executed unintentionally must inevitably become the source
of misunderstanding in human relations. The perpetrator of the act, who
is unaware of any associated intention, takes no account of it, and
does not hold himself responsible for it. On the other hand, the second
party, having regularly utilized even such acts as those of his partner
to draw conclusions as to their purpose and meaning, recognizes more
of the stranger’s psychic processes than the latter is ready either to
admit or believe that he has imparted. He becomes indignant when these
conclusions drawn from his symptomatic actions are held up to him; he
declares them baseless because he does not see any conscious intention
in their execution, and complains of being misunderstood by the other.
Close examination shows that such misunderstandings are based on the
fact that the person is too fine an observer and understands too much.
The more “nervous” two persons are the more readily will they give
each other cause for disputes, which are based on the fact that one as
definitely denies about his own person what he is sure to accept about
the other.
And this is, indeed, the punishment for the inner dishonesty to which
people grant expression under the guise of “forgetting,” of erroneous
actions and accidental emotions, a feeling which they would do better
to confess to themselves and others when they can no longer control
it. As a matter of fact it can be generally affirmed that every one
is continually practising psychoanalysis on his neighbours, and
consequently learns to know them better than each individual knows
himself. The road following the admonition γνῶθι σεαυτὁν leads through
the study of one’s own apparently casual commissions and omissions.
X
ERRORS
Errors of memory are distinguished from forgetting and false
recollections through one feature only, namely, that the error (false
recollection) is not recognized as such but finds credence. However,
the use of the expression “error” seems to depend on still another
condition. We speak of “erring” instead of “falsely recollecting” where
the character of the objective reality is emphasized in the psychic
material to be reproduced--that is, where something other than a fact
of my own psychic life is to be remembered, or rather something that
may be confirmed or refuted through the memory of others. The reverse
of the error in memory in this sense is formed by ignorance.
In my book _The Interpretation of Dreams_,[61] I was responsible for
a series of errors in historical, and above all, in material facts,
which I was astonished to discover after the appearance of the book.
On closer examination I found that they did not originate from my
ignorance, but could be traced to errors of memory explainable by means
of analysis.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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