Association of ideas; Memory; Paragrammatism; Psychoanalysis; Psychology, Pathological; Repression (Psychology)
“Lucerne is associated with the idea of the summer which Veronica spent
with her employers in a place near Lucerne. The Swiss Guard again
recalls that she tyrannized not only the children but also the adult
members of the family, and thus played the part of the ‘Garde-Dame.’
“I expressly observe that this antipathy of mine against V. consciously
belongs to things long overcome. Since that time she has changed in her
appearance and manner, very much to her advantage, so that I am able to
meet her with sincere regard (to be sure I hardly find such occasion).
As usual, however, my unconscious sticks more tenaciously to those
impressions; it is old in its resentment.
“The Tuileries represent an allusion to a second personality, an old
French lady who actually ‘guarded’ the women of the house, and who was
in high regard and somewhat feared by everybody. For a long time I was
her _élève_ in French conversation. The word _élève_ recalls that when
I visited the brother-in-law of my present host in northern Bohemia I
had to laugh a great deal because the rural population referred to the
_élèves_ (pupils) of the school of forestry as _löwen_ (lions). Also
this jocose recollection might have taken part in the displacement of
the hyena by the lion.”
(_i_) The following example can also show how a personal complex
swaying the person at the time being may by devious ways bring about
the forgetting of a name.[7]
Two men, an elder and a younger, who had travelled together in Sicily
six months before, exchanged reminiscences of those pleasant and
interesting days.
“Let’s see, what was the name of that place,” asked the younger, “where
we passed the night before taking the trip to Selinunt? _Calatafini_,
was it not?”
The elder rejected this by saying: “Certainly not; but I have forgotten
the name, too, although I can recall perfectly all the details of the
place. Whenever I hear some one forget a name it immediately produces
forgetfulness in me. Let us look for the name. I cannot think of any
other name except _Caltanisetta_, which is surely not correct.”
“No,” said the younger, “the name begins with, or contains, a _w_.”
“But the Italian language contains no _w_,” retorted the elder.
“I really meant a _v_, and I said _w_ because I am accustomed to
interchange them in my mother tongue.”
The elder, however, objected to the _v_. He added: “I believe that I
have already forgotten many of the Sicilian names. Suppose we try to
find out. For example, what is the name of the place situated on a
height which was called _Enna_ in antiquity?”
“Oh, I know that: _Castrogiovanni_.” In the next moment the younger
man discovered the lost name. He cried out ‘_Castelvetrano_,’ and was
pleased to be able to demonstrate the supposed _v_.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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