Freud - Complete Works (518 page)
Introductory Lectures On Psycho-Analysis
3142
Two writers, Meringer and Mayer
(a philologist and a psychiatrist), in fact made an attempt in 1895
to attack the problem of parapraxes from this angle. They collected
examples and began by treating them in a purely descriptive way.
This, of course, provides no explanation as yet, though it might
pave the way to one. They distinguish the various kinds of
distortions imposed by the slip on the intended speech as
‘transpositions’, pre-sonances’,
‘post-sonances’, ‘fusions (contaminations)'
and ‘replacements (substitutions)'. I will give you some
examples of these main groups proposed by the authors. An instance
of transposition would be to say ‘
the Milo of
Venus
’ instead of ‘the Venus of Milo’ (a
transposition of the order of the words); an instance of a
pre-sonance would be: ‘es war mir
auf der
Schwest . . .
auf der Brust so
schwer’;¹ and a post-sonance would be exemplified by the
well-known toast that went wrong: ‘Ich fordere Sie
auf,
auf
das Wohl unseres Chefs
auf
zustossen’ [instead
of
an
zustossen].² These three forms of slip of the
tongue are not exactly common. You will come on much more numerous
examples in which the slip results from contraction or fusion.
Thus, for instance, a gentleman addressed a lady in the street in
the following words: ‘If you will permit me, madam, I should
like to
begleit-digen
you.’ The composite word,³
in addition to the ‘
begleiten
[to accompany]’,
evidently has concealed in it ‘
beleidigen
[to
insult]’. (Incidentally, the young man was not likely to have
much success with the lady.) As an example of a substitution
Meringer and Mayer give the case of someone saying: ‘Ich gebe
die Präparate in den
Brief
kasten’ instead of
‘
Brüt
kasten’.
4
¹
[The phrase intended was: ‘it lay on
my breast so heavily.’ The meaningless
‘
Schwest
’ was a distortion of
‘
Brust
(breast)' owing to an anticipation of the
‘
schw
’ of ‘
schwer
(heavily)'.]
²
[‘I call on you to
hiccough
’ (instead of ‘drink to’)
‘the health of our Chief.’]
³
[A meaningless one.]
4
[‘I put the preparation into the
letter-box’ instead of ‘incubator’, literally,
‘hatching-box’.]
Introductory Lectures On Psycho-Analysis
3143
The attempted explanation which
these authors base on their collection of instances is quite
peculiarly inadequate. They believe that the sounds and syllables
of a word have a particular ‘valency’ and that the
innervation of an element of high valency may have a disturbing
influence on one that is less valent. Here they are clearly basing
themselves on the far from common cases of pre-sonance and
post-sonance; these preferences of some sounds over others (if they
in fact exist) can have no bearing at all on other effects of slips
of the tongue. After all, the commonest slips of the tongue are
when, instead of saying one word, we say another very much like it;
and this similarity is for many people a sufficient explanation of
such slips. For instance, a Professor declared in his inaugural
lecture: ‘I am not ‘
geneigt
[inclined]’
(instead of ‘
geeignet
[qualified]’) to
appreciate the services of my highly esteemed predecessor.’
Or another Professor remarked: ‘In the case of the female
genitals, in spite of many
Versuchungen
[temptations] - I
beg your pardon,
Versuche
[experiments]. . . .’
The most usual, and at the same
time the most striking kind of slips of the tongue, however, are
those in which one says the precise opposite of what one intended
to say. Here, of course, we are very remote from relations between
sounds and the effects of similarity; and instead we can appeal to
the fact that contraries have a strong conceptual kinship with each
other and stand in a particularly close psychological association
with each other. There are historical examples of such occurrences.
A President of the Lower House of our Parliament once opened the
sitting with the words: ‘Gentlemen, I take notice that a full
quorum of members is present and herewith declare the sitting
closed
.’)
Introductory Lectures On Psycho-Analysis
3144
Any other familiar association
can act in the same insidious fashion as a contrary one, and can
emerge in quite unsuitable circumstances. Thus, on the occasion of
a celebration in honour of the marriage of a child of Hermann von
Helmholtz to a child of Werner von Siemens, the well-known inventor
and industrialist, it is said that the duty of proposing the young
couple’s health fell to the famous physiologist Du
Bois-Reymond. No doubt he made a brilliant speech, but he ended
with the words: ‘So, long life to the new firm of Siemens and
Halske!’ That was, of course, the name of the
old
firm. The juxtaposition of the two names must have been as familiar
to a Berliner as Fortnum and Mason would be to a
Londoner.¹
We must therefore include among
the causes of parapraxes not only relations between sounds and
verbal similarity, but the influence of word-associations as well.
But that is not all. In a number of cases it seems impossible to
explain a slip of the tongue unless we take into account something
that had been said, or even merely thought, in an earlier sentence.
Once again, then, we have here a case of perseveration, like those
insisted upon by Meringer, but of more distant origin. - I must
confess that I feel on the whole as though after all this we were
further than ever from understanding slips of the tongue.
¹
[In the original: ‘as Riedel and
Beutel would be to a Viennese’. This last was a well-known
outfitter’s shop in Vienna. Siemens and Halske were, of
course, the great electrical engineers.]
Introductory Lectures On Psycho-Analysis
3145
Nevertheless I hope I am not
mistaken in saying that during this last enquiry we have all of us
formed a fresh impression of these instances of slips of the
tongue, and that it may be worth while to consider that impression
further. We examined the conditions under which in general slips of
the tongue occur, and afterwards the influences which determine the
kind of distortion which the slip produces. But we have so far paid
no attention whatever to the
product
of the slip considered
by itself, without reference to its origin. If we decide to do so,
we are bound in the end to find the courage to say that in a few
examples what results from the slip of the tongue has a sense of
its own. What do we mean by ‘has a sense’? That the
product of the slip of the tongue may perhaps itself have a right
to be regarded as a completely valid psychical act, pursuing an aim
of its own, as a statement with a content and significance. So far
we have always spoken of ‘parapraxes’, but it seems now
as though sometimes the faulty act was itself quite a
normal
act, which merely took the place of the other act which was the one
expected or intended.
The fact of the parapraxis having
a sense of its own seems in certain cases evident and unmistakable.
When the President of the Lower House with his first words
closed
the sitting instead of opening it, we feel inclined,
in view of our knowledge of the circumstances in which the slip of
the tongue occurred, to recognize that the parapraxis had a sense.
The President expected nothing good of the sitting and would have
been glad if he could have brought it to an immediate end. We have
no difficulty in pointing to the sense of this slip of the tongue,
or, in other words, in interpreting it. Or, let us suppose that one
lady says to another in tones of apparent admiration: ‘That
smart new hat - I suppose you
aufgepatzt
[a non-existent
word instead of
aufgeputzt
(trimmed)] it yourself?’
Then no amount of scientific propriety will succeed in preventing
our seeing behind this slip of the tongue the words: ‘This
hat is a
Patzerei
[botched-up affair].’ Or, once more,
we are told that a lady who was well-known for her energy remarked
on one occasion: ‘My husband asked his doctor what diet he
ought to follow; but the doctor told him he had no need to diet: he
could eat and drink what I want.’ Here again the slip of the
tongue has an unmistakable other side to it: it was giving
expression to a consistently planned programme.
Introductory Lectures On Psycho-Analysis
3146
If it turned out, Ladies and
Gentlemen, that not only
a few
instances of slips of the
tongue and of parapraxes in general have a sense, but a
considerable number of them, the
sense
of parapraxes, of
which we have so far heard nothing, would inevitably become their
most interesting feature and would push every other consideration
into the background. We should then be able to leave all
physiological or psycho-physiological factors on one side and
devote ourselves to purely psychological investigations into the
sense - that is, the meaning or purpose - of parapraxes. We shall
therefore make it our business to test this expectation on a
considerable number of observations.
But before carrying out this
intention I should like to invite you to follow me along another
track. It has repeatedly happened that a creative writer has made
use of a slip of the tongue or some other parapraxis as an
instrument for producing an imaginative effect. This fact alone
must prove to us that he regards the parapraxis - the slip of the
tongue, for instance - as having a sense, since he has produced it
deliberately. For what has happened is not that the author has made
an accidental slip of the pen and has then allowed it to be used by
one of his characters as a slip of the tongue; he intends to bring
something to our notice by means of the slip of the tongue and we
can enquire what that something is - whether perhaps he wants to
suggest that the character in question is absent-minded and
fatigued or is going to have an attack of migraine. If the author
uses the slip as though it had a sense, we have no wish, of course,
to exaggerate the importance of this. After all, a slip might in
fact be without a sense, a chance psychical event, or it might have
a sense in only quite rare cases, but the author would still retain
his right to intellectualize it by
furnishing
it with a
sense so as to employ it for his own purposes. Nor would it be
surprising if we had more to learn about slips of the tongue from
creative writers than from philologists and psychiatrists.
Introductory Lectures On Psycho-Analysis
3147
An example of this kind is to be
found in
Wallenstein
(
Piccolomini
, Act I, Scene 5).
In the preceding scene Max Piccolomini has ardently espoused the
Duke’s cause, and has been passionately describing the
blessings of peace, of which he has become aware in the course of a
journey while escorting Wallenstein’s daughter to the camp.
As he leaves the stage, his father and Questenberg, the emissary
from the Court, are plunged in consternation. Scene 5
continues:
QUESTENBERG
Alas, alas! and stands it
so?
What, friend! and do we let him go away
In this delusion - let him go away?
Not call him back immediately, not open
His eyes upon the spot?
OCTAVIO
(
recovering himself out of a deep
study
) He now has open’d mine,
And I see more than pleases me.
QUEST
.
What is it?
OCT
.
Curse on this journey!
QUEST
.
But why so? What is it?
OCT
.
Come, come along friend! I must follow up
The ominous track immediately. Mine eyes
Are open’d now, and I must use them. Come!
(
Draws Q. on with him
.)
QUEST
.
What now?
Where
go you then?
OCT
.
To her . . .
QUEST
.
To -
OCT
. (
correcting himself
) To the Duke.
Come let us go.
Octavio had meant to say ‘to him’,
to the Duke. But he makes a slip of the tongue, and, by saying
‘to her’ he betrays to us at least that he has clearly
recognized the influence that has made the young warrior into an
enthusiast for peace.