Psychopathology of Everyday Life by Sigmund Freud - Chapter 6 - Mistakes in Reading and Writing

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:01):
Section six of Psychopathology of Everyday Life, translated by A. A.
Brill mistakes in reading and writing. That the same viewpoints
and observation should hold true for mistakes in reading and writing,
as for lapses in speech, is not at all surprising
when one remembers the inner relation of these functions. I

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shall here confine myself to the reports of several carefully
analyzed examples, and shall make no attempt to include all
of the phenomena lapses in reading. A While looking over
a number of Leipziger illustrierton which I was holding obliquely,
I read, as the title of the front page picture

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A wedding celebration in the Odyssey. Astonished and with my
attention aroused, I moved the page into the proper position,
only to read correctly, A wedding celebration in the Ulste
Sea the Baltic Sea. How did this senseless mistake in
reading come about? Immediately my thoughts turned to a book

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by Ruth Experimental Investigations of Music Phantoms, et cetera, with
which I had recently been much occupied, as it closely
touched the psychologic problems that are of interest to me.
The author promised a work in the near future to
be called Analysis and Principles of dream Phenomena. No wonder

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that I, having just published an Interpretation of Dreams, awaited
the appearance of this book with the most intense interest.
In Ruth's work concerning music phantoms, I found an announcement
in the beginning of the table of contents of the
detailed inductive proof that the old Hellenic myths and traditions

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originated mainly from slumber and music phantoms, from dream phenomena,
and from deliria. Thereupon, I had immediately plunged into the
text in order to find out whether he was also
aware that the scene where Odysseus appears before Narseica was
based upon the common dream of nakedness. One of my

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friends called my attention to the clever passage in g.
Keller's Grunham Heinrich, which explains this episode in the Odyssey
as an objective representation of the dream of the mariner's
string far from Home. I added to it the reference
to the exhibition dream of nakedness. B. A woman who

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is very anxious to get children always reads storks instead
of stocks c. One day I received a letter which
contained very disturbing news. I immediately called my wife and
informed her that poor missus William H. Was seriously ill
and was given up by the doctors. There must have

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been a false ring to the words in which I
expressed my sympathy. As my wife grew suspicious, asked to
see the letter and expressed her opinion that it could
not read as stated by me, because no one calls
the wife by the husband's name. Moreover, the correspondent was
well acquainted with the Christian name of the woman concerned.

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I defended my assertion obstinately and referred to the customary
visiting cards on which a woman designates herself by the
Christian name of her husband. I was finally compelled to
take up the letter, and as a matter of fact,
we read therein poor w M. What is more, I
had even overlooked poor doctor w M. My mistake in

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reading signified a spasmodic effort, so to speak, to turn
the sad news from the man towards the woman. The
title between the adjective and the name did not go
well with my claim that the woman must have been meant.
That is why it was a miss in the reading.
The motive for this falsifying was not that the woman

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was less an object of my sympathy than the man,
but the fate of this poor man had excited my
fears regarding another and nearer person, who I was aware
had the same disease. D both irritating and laughable, is
a lapse in reading to which I am frequently subject.
When I walk through the streets of a strange city

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during my vacation, I then read antiquities on every shop
sign that shows the slightest resemblance to the word. This
displays the questing spirit of the collector e. In his
important work, Bluler relates, while reading, I once had the

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intellectual feeling of seeing my name two lines below. To
my astonishment, I found only the words blood corpuscles. Of
the many thousands of lapses in reading in the peripheral
as well as in the central field of vision that
I have analyzed, this was the most striking case. Whenever
I imagined that I saw my name, the word that

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induced this illusion usually showed a greater resemblance to my
name than to the words blood corpuscles. In most cases,
all the letters of my name had to be close
together before I could commit such an error. In this case, however,
I could readily explain the delusion of reference and the
illusion what I had just read was the end of

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a statement concerning a form of bad style in scientific works,
a tendency from which I am not entirely free lapses
in writing a on a sheet of paper containing principally
short daily notes of business interest, I found, to my
surprise the incorrect date Thursday, October twentieth, bracketed under the

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correct date of the month of sad September. It was
not difficult to explain this anticipation as the expression of
a wish. A few days before I had returned fresh
from my vacation and felt ready for any amount of
professional work, But as yet there were few patients. On
my arrival. I had found a letter from a patient

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announcing her arrival on the twentieth of October. As I
wrote the same date in September, I may certainly have
thought X ought to be here already, What a pity
about that whole month, And with this thought I pushed
the current date a month ahead. In this case, the
disturbing thought can scarcely be called unpleasant. Therefore, after noticing

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this lapse in writing, I immediately knew the solution. In
the fall of the following year, I experienced it entirely
analogous and similarly motivated laps in writing. E. Jones has
made a study of similar cases and found that most
mistakes in writing dates are motivated b I received the

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proof sheets of my contribution to the Annual Report on
Neurology and Psychiatry, and I was naturally obliged to review
with special care the names of authors, which, because of
the many different nationalities represented, offer the greatest difficulties to
the compositor. As a matter of fact, I found some

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strange sounding names still in need of correction. But oddly enough,
the compositor had corrected one single name in mine manuscript,
and with very good reason. I had written Buckerhardt, which
the compositor guessed to be Burkhard. I had praised the
treatise of this obstetrician entitled The Influence of Birth on

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the Origin of Infantile Paralysis, and I was not conscious
of the least enmity toward him. But an author in
Vienna who had angered me by an adverse criticism of
my Tromdeutung bears the same name. It was as if
in writing the name Burkharduard, meaning the obstetrician, a wicked
thought concerning the other bee had obtruded itself. The twisting

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of the name, as I have already stated in regard
to lapses in speech, often signifies a depreciation c The
following is seemingly a serious case of Laps's scalamy, which
it would be equally correct to describe as an erroneously
carried out action. I intended to withdraw from the postal

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savings bank the sum of three hundred crowns, which I
wished to send to an absent relative to enable him
to take treatment at a watering place. I noted that
my account was four thousand, three hundred eighty crowns, and
I decided to bring it down to the round sum
of four thousand crowns, which was not to be touched
in the near future. After making out the regular check,

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I suddenly noticed that I had written not three hundred
eighty crowns as I had intended, but exactly four hundred
and thirty eight crown I was frightened at the untrustworthiness
of my action. I soon realized that my fear was groundless,
as I had not grown poorer than I was before.
But I had to reflect for quite a while in

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order to discover what influence diverted me from my first
intention without making itself known to my consciousness. First, I
got on a wrong track. I subtracted three eighty from
four thirty eight, but after that I did not know
what to do with the difference. Finally, an idea occurred
to me which showed me the true connection. Four thirty

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eight is exactly ten percent of the entire account of
four thousand, three hundred eighty crowns, but the bookseller, too,
gives a ten percent discount. I recalled that a few
days before, I had selected several books in which I
was no longer interested, in order to offer them to
the bookseller for three hundred crowns. He thought the price

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demanded too high, but promised give me a final answer
within the next few days. If he should accept my
first offer, he would replace the exact sum that I
was to spend on the sufferer. There is no doubt
that I was sorry about this expenditure. The emotion at
the realization of my mistakes can be more easily understood

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as a fear of growing poor through such outlays but
both the sorrow over this expense and the fear of
poverty connected with it were entirely foreign to my consciousness.
I did not regret this expense when I promised the sum,
and I would have laughed at the idea of any
such underlying motive. I should probably not have assigned such

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feelings to myself, had not my psychoanalytic practice made me
quite familiar with the repressed elements of psychic life, and
if I had not had a dream a few days
before which brought forth the same solution d. Although it
is usually difficult to find the person responsible for a
printer's errors, the psycho logic mechanisms underlying them are the

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same as in other mistakes. Typographical errors also well demonstrate
the fact that people are not at all indifferent to
such trivialities as mistakes, and judging by the indignant reactions
of the parties concerned, one is forced to the conclusion
that mistakes are not treated by the public at large

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as mere accidents. This state of affairs is very well
summed up in the following editorial from the New York
Times of April fourteenth, nineteen thirteen. Not the least interesting
are the comments of the keen witted editor who seems
to share our views quote a blunder, truly unfortunate. Typographical

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errors come only too frequently from even the best regulated
newspaper presses. They are always humiliating, often a cause of anger,
and occasionally dangerous. But now and then they are distinctly amusing.
This latter quality. They are most apt to have when
they are made in the office of a journalistic neighbor,

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a fact that probably explains why we can read with
smiling composure an elaborate editorial apology which appears in the
Hartford Current. Its able political commentator tried the other day
to say, Unfortunately for Connecticut, j H is no longer
a member of Congress, printer and proofreader combined to deprive

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the adverb of its negative particle. At least the able
political commentator so declares, And we wouldn't question his veracity
for the world. But sorrowful experience has taught most of
us that it's safer to get that sort of editorial
disclaimer of responsibility into print before looking up the copy.
And perhaps just perhaps the world enlightener who knows that

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he wrote unfortunate because that is what he intended to write,
didn't rashly change the discovery of his own guilt before
he convicted the composing room of it. Be that as
it may, the meaning of the sentence was cruelly changed,
and a friend was grieved or offended. Not so long ago,
a more astonishing error than this one crept into a

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book review of ours, a very solemn and scientific book.
It consisted of the substitution of the word cariboo for
the word carbon in a paragraph dealing with the chemical
composition of the stars. In this case, the writer's fierce
self exculpation is at least highly plausible, as it seems
hardly possible that he wrote cariboo when he intended to

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write carbon. But even he was cautious enough to make
no deep inquiry into the matter. E. I cite the
following case contributed by doctor W. Stuckle, for the authenticity
of which I can vouch. An almost unbelievable example of
miswriting and misreading occurred in the editing of a widely

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circulated weekly. It concerned an article of defense and vindication,
which was written with much warmth and great pathos. The
editor in chief of the paper read the article while
the author himself naturally read it from the manuscript and
proof sheets. More than once everybody was satisfied when the
printer's reader suddenly noticed a slight error which had escaped

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the attention of all there. It was plainly enough our
readers will bear witness to the fact that we have
always acted in a selfish manner for the good of
the community. It is quite evident that it was meant
to read unselfish. The real thoughts, however, broke through the
pathetic speech with elemental force. F The following example of

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misprinting is taken from a Western gazette. The teacher was
giving an instruction paper on mathematical methods and spoke of
a plan for the instruction of youth that might be
carried out odd livdinem g. Even the Bible did not
escape miss prints. Thus we have the Wicked Bible, so

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called from the fact that the negative was left out
of the seventh Commandment. This authorized edition of the Bible
was published in London in sixteen thirty one, and it
is said that the printer had to pay a fine
of two thousand pounds for the omission. Another biblical misprint
dates back to the year fifteen eighty and is found

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in the Bible of the famous Library of Wolfenbuttel in Hesse.
In the passage in Genesis where God tells Eve that
Adam shall be her master and shall rule over her,
the German translationists under soldine hair sign the word here
master was substituted by gnar, which means fool. Newly discovered

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evidence seems to show that the error was a conscious
machination of the printer's suffragette wife, who refused to be
ruled by her husband. H Doctor to Ernest Jones reports
the following case concerning a a brill although by custom
almost to teetotaler, he yielded to a friend's importunity one

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evening in order to avoid offending him, and took a
little wine. During the next morning. An exacerbation of an
eye strain headache gave him cause to regret this slight indulgence,
and his reflection on the subject found expression in the
following slip of the pen. Having occasion to write the
name of a girl mentioned by a patient, he wrote

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not ethel e t h e l, but ethel e
t h y l. It happened that the girl in
question was rather too fond of drink, and in doctor
Brill's mood at the time, this characteristic of hers stood
out with conspicuous significance. I a woman wrote to her
sister felicitating her on the occasion of taking possession of

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a new and spacious residence. A friend who was present
noticed that the right put the wrong address on the letter,
And what was still more remarkable was the fact that
she did not address it to the previous residence, but
to one long ago given up, but which her sister
had occupied when she first married. When the friend called
her attention to it, the writer remarked, you are right,

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but what in the world made me do this, to
which her friend replied, perhaps you begrudge her the nice,
big apartment into which she has just moved, because you, yourself
are cramped for space, and for that reason you put
her back in her first residence, where she was no
better off than yourself. Of course, I begrudge her the
new apartment, she honestly admitted. As an afterthought, she added,

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it is a pity that one is so mean in
such matters. K Ernest Jones reports the following example given
to him by doctor A. A. Brill, in a letter
to doctor Brill, a patient, tried to attribute his nervousness
to business worries and excitement during the cotton crisis. He
went on to say, my trouble is all due to

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that frigid wave. There isn't even any seed to be
obtained for new crops. He referred to a cold wave
which had destroyed the cotton crops, but instead of writing
a wave, he wrote wife. In the bottom of his
heart he entertained reproaches against his wife on account of
her marital frigidity and childlessness, and he was not far

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from the cognition that the enforced abstinence played no little
part in the causation of his malady. Omissions in writing
are naturally explained in the same manner as mistakes in writing.
A remarkable example of omission, which is of historic importance,
was reported by doctor B. Datner in one of the

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legal articles dealing with the financial obligations of both countries,
which was drawn up in the year eighteen sixty seven
during the readjustment between Austria and Hungary. The word effective
was accidentally omitted in the Hungarian translation. Dattner thinks it
probable that the unconscious desire of the Hungarian lawmakers to

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grant Austria the least possible advantages had something to do
with this omission. Another example of omission is the following
related by Brill quote. A prospective patient who had corresponded
with me relative to treatment finally wrote for an appointment
for a certain day. Instead of keeping his appointment, he

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sent regrets which began as follows, Owing to foreseen circumstances,
I am unable to keep my appointment, he naturally meant
to write unforeseen. He finally came to me months later,
and in the course of the analysis, I discovered that
my suspicions at the time were justified. There were no
unforeseen circumstances to prevent his coming. At that time he

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was advised not to come to me. The unconscious does
not lie. Wundt gives a most no worthy proof for
the easily ascertained fact that we more easily make mistakes
in writing than in speaking. He states, in the course
of normal conversation, the inhibiting function of the will is

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constantly directed toward bringing into harmony the course of ideation
with the movement of articulation. If the articulation following the
ideas becomes retarded, through mechanical causes. As in writing, anticipations
then readily make their appearance. Observation of the determinants which

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favor lapses in reading gives rise to doubt, which I
do not like to leave unmentioned, because I am of
the opinion that it may become the starting point of
a fruitless investigation. It is a familiar fact that in
reading aloud, the attention of the reader often wanders from
the text and is directed toward his own thoughts. The

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results of this deviation of attention are often such that,
when interrupted and questioned, he cannot even state what he
was reading. In other words, he has read automatically, although
the reading was nearly always correct. I do not think
that such conditions favor any noticeable increase in the mistakes.
We are accustomed to assume concerning a whole series of

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functions that they are most precisely performed when done automatically,
with scarcely any conscious attention. This argues that the conditions
governing attention in mistakes in speaking, writing, and reading must
be differently determined than assumed by want cessation or diminution
of attention. The examples which we have subjected to analysis

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have really not given us the right to take for
granted a quantitative diminution of attention. We found what is
probably not exactly the same thing, a disturbance of the
attention through a strange, obtruding thought. End of Section six