Freudian Slips

- What are they and examples -

By J Jones

What are the Freudian slips? Common mistakes such as forgetting names, projects or book titles, lecture errors such as reading instead of the word written in a newspaper another one, pronunciation errors - when instead of saying the word we want to say we say another one - writing errors - when we write something else than what we had intended. There are many slips and mistakes - generally called lapses - studied and analyzed by Freud in order to prove they are not hazardous but meaningful acts related to his theory of the functioning of the unconscious mind.

Let's give an example of Freudian slip

George addresses his friend with a wrong name. Why? Analyzing the wrong name, we find out that it is actually George's brother, about whom George had a very bad opinion and later kicked him out from the parental family.

So, what is the meaning of this name error (confusion)? George thinks that the current friend looks like the brother he kicked out. However, this thought was repressed but returned, suddenly, due to the slip of tongue.

About the symptomatic acts

Then there are the symptomatic acts, the most frequent one being to play with the wedding ring on your finger.

These acts indicate serious unconscious drives that are revealed only after a thorough analysis.

A simple symptomatic act is committed by a man who has to call his girlfriend in order to break up with her. He would not want this in fact and then, when he calls her, he unconsciously uses an expired phone card so that his conscious intention of saying good-bye would not be completed.

Freud approached in-depth these slips and mistakes in his dedicated book The Psychopathology of Everyday Life. This book had an enormous success because it was addressed not only to specialists but to the wide public too, offering reliable explanations about what these mistakes are and how they can be analyzed.

Freud offers many examples concerning the interpretation of slips, mistakes and symptomatic acts in his book. We also offer several examples of such errors approached through the psychoanalytic means.

Several examples:

• A Reading Error - Spring or Mate Rituals
   
• A Reading Error
   
• A Slip with an Email
   
• A Reading Error with the Word "Charm"
   
• A Very Simple Freudian Slip
   
• The Meaning of a Simple Mistake with Numbers
   
• Fan Club or Fun Club?

Further resources

• More articles and papers on Freudian slips may be purchased from our paperstore. More...
   
• Check out our email course dealing with the psychoanalytic techniques for the exploration of the unconscious. Start now.

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