Psychopathology of Everyday Life by Sigmund Freud - Chapter 10 - Errors

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Section ten of Psychopathology of Everyday Life, translated by A. A.
Brill 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,

(00:20):
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

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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, 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

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that they did not originate from my ignorance, but could
be traced to errors of memory explainable by means of analysis. A.
On page three sixty one, I indicated as Schiller's birthplace
the city of Marburg, A name which recurs in Styria.
The error is found in the analysis of a dream

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during a night journey, from which I was awakened by
the conductor calling out the name of the station Marburg.
In the contents of the dream, inquiry is made concerning
a book by Schiller. But Schiller was not born in
the university town of Marburg, but in the Swabian city
of Marbach. I maintain I always knew this b On

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page one sixty five, Hannibal's father is called Hasdrabal. This
error was particularly annoying to me, but it is most
corroborative of my conception of such errors. Few readers of
the book are better posted on the history of the
Barkydes than the author who wrote this error and overlooked it.
In three proofs, the name of Hannibal's father was Hamakar Barkis.

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Hasdrubal was the name of Hannibal's brother, as well as
that of his brother in law and predecessor in command
s On pages two seventeen and four ninety two, I
assert that Zeus emasculates his father Cronos and hurls him
from the throne. This horror I have erroneously advanced by
a generation. According to Greek mythology, it was Cronos who

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committed this on his father Uranus. How is it to
be explained that my memory furnished me with false material
on these points, while it usually places the most remote
and unusual materials at my disposal, as the readers of
my books can verify. And what is more, in three
carefully executed proofreadings, I passed over these errors as if

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struck Block. Goethe said to Liechtenburg, where he cracks a joke,
there lies a concealed problem. Similarly, we can't affirm of
these passages cited from my book back of every error
is a repression. More accurately stated, the error conceals a falsehood,
a disfigurement, which is ultimately based on repressed material. In

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the analysis of the dreams there reported, I was compelled
by the very nature of the theme to which the
dream thoughts related, on the one hand, to break off
the analysis in some places before it had reached its completion,
and on the other hand, to remove an indiscreet detail
through a slight disfigurement of its outline. I could not

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act differently, and had no other choice. If I was
at all to offer examples and illustrations. My constrained position
was necessarily brought about by the peculiarity of dreams, which
give expression to repressed thoughts or to material which is
incapable of being conscious. In spite of this, it is
said that enough material remained to offend the most sensitive souls.

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The disfigurement or concealment of the continuing thoughts known to
me could not be accomplished without leaving some trace. What
I wish to repress has often, against my will, obtruded
itself on what I have taken up, and evinced itself
in the matter as an unnoticeable error. Indeed, each of

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the three examples given is based on the same theme.
The errors are the results of repressed thoughts which occupy
themselves with my deceased father at a whoever reads through
the dream analyzed on page three sixty one will find
some parts unveiled. In some parts he will be able
to divine through allusions, that I have broken off the

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thoughts which would have contained an unfavorable criticism of my father.
In the continuation of this line of thoughts and memories,
there lies an annoying tale in which books and a
business friend of my father named Marburg play a part.
It is the same name, the calling out of which
in the Southern Railway station had aroused me from sleep.

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I wished to suppress this mister Marburg in the analysis
from myself and my readers. He avenged himself by intruding
where he did not belong, and changed the name of
Schiller's birthplace from Marbach to Marburg ad b. The heir
Hasdrubal in place of Hamilcar. The name of the brother
instead of that of the father, originated from an association

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which dealt with the Hannibal fantasies of my college years
and my dissatisfaction with the conduct of my father toward
the enemies of our people. I could have continued and
recounted how my attitude toward my father was changed by
a visit to England, where I made the acquaintance of
my half brother by a previous marriage of my father.

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My brother's oldest son was my age exactly. Thus the
age relations were no hindrance to a fantasy, which may
be stated thus, how much pleasanter it would be had
I been born the son of my brother instead of
the son of my father. This suppressed fantasy then falsified
the text of my book at the point where I
broke off the analysis by forcing me to put the

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name of the brother for that of the father odds c.
The influence of the memory of this same brother is
responsible for my having advanced by a generation the mythological
horror of the Greek deities. One of the admonitions of
my brother has lingered long in my memory. Do not
forget one thing concerning your conduct in life, he said,

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you belong not to the second but really to the
third generation of your father. Our father had remarried at
an advanced age, and was therefore an old man to
his children. By the second marriage. I commit the error
mentioned where I discussed the piety between parents in Showald.
Several times friends and patients have called my attention to

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the fact that, in reporting their dreams or alluding to
them in dream analyzes, I have related inaccurately the circumstances
experienced by us in common. These are also historic errors.
In re examining such individual cases, I have found that
my recollection of the facts was unreliable only where I

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had purposely disfigured or concealed something In the analysis. Here
again we have an unobserved error as a substitute for
an intentional concealment or repression. From these errors which originate
from repression, we must sharply distinguish those which are based
on actual ignorance. Thus, for example, it was ignorance when

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on my excursion to Wachau, I believed that I had
passed the resting place of the revolutionary leader Fischhoff. Only
the name is common to both places. Fischoff's Emersdorff is
located in Karntham, but I did not know any better.
Here is another embarrassing but instructive error, an example of

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temporary ignorance, if you like. One day, a patient reminded
me to give him the two books on venice which
I had promised him, as he wished to use them
in planning his easter tour. I answered that I had
them ready and went into the library to fetch them,
though the truth of the matter was that I had
forgotten to look them up, since I did not quite

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approve of my patient's journey, looking upon it as an
unnecessary interruption to the treatment and as a material loss
to the physician. Thereupon, I made a quick survey of
the library for the books, one was venedig ast Kunstata,
And besides this, I imagined I had an historic work
of a similar order. Certainly there was de Medicir the Mediceese.

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I took them and brought them into him. Then, embarrassed,
I confessed my error. Of course, I really knew that
the Medicis had nothing to do with Venice, but for
a short time it did not appear to me at
all incorrect. Now I was compelled to practice justice, as
I had so frequently interpreted my patient's symptomatic actions. I
could save my prestige only by being honest and admitting

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to him the secret motives of my averseness to his trip.
It may cause general astonishment to learn how much stronger
is the impulse to tell the truth than is usually supposed.
Perhaps it is a result of my occupation with psychoanalysis
that I can scarcely lie any more. As often as
I attempt a distortion, I succumbed to an error or

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some other faulty act which betrays my dishonesty, as was
manifest in this and in the preceding examples of all
faulty actions. The mechanism of the error seems to be
the most superficial. That is, the occurrence of the error
invariably indicates that the mental activity concerned had to struggle

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with some disturbing influence. Although the nature of the error
need not be determined by the quality of the disturbing idea,
which may have remained obscure, it is not out of
place to add that the same state of affairs may
be assumed in many simple cases of lapses in speaking
and writing. Every time we commit a lapse in speaking

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or writing, we may conclude that through mental processes there
has come a disturbance which is beyond our intention. It
may be conceded, however, that lapses in speaking and writing
often follow the laws of similarity and convenience, or the
tendency to acceleration, without allowing the disturbing element to leave

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a trace of its own character in the error resulting
from the lapses in speaking or writing. It is the
responsiveness of the linguistic material which at first makes possible
the determination of the error, but it also limits the same.
In order not to confine my self excit exclusively to
personal errors, I will relate a few examples which could

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just as well have been ranged under lapses in speech
or under erroneously carried out actions. But as all these
forms of faulty action have the same value, they may
as well be reported here. A I forbade a patient
to speak on the telephone to his lady love, with
whom he himself was willing to break off all relations,

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as each conversation only renewed the struggling against it. He
was to write her his final decision. Although there were
some difficulties in the way of delivering the letter to her.
He visited me at one o'clock to tell me that
he had found a way of avoiding these difficulties, and
among other things, he asked me whether he might refer
to me in my professional capacity. At two o'clock, while

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he was engaged in composing the letter of refusal, he
interrupted himself suddenly and said, to his mother, while I
have forgotten to ask the professor whether I may use
his name in the letter. He hurried to the telephone,
got the connection, and asked the question, may I speak
to the professor after his dinner? In answer, he got
an astonished Adolph, have you gone crazy? The answering voice

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was the very voice which at my command he had
listened to for the last time. He had simply made
a mistake, and in place of the physician's number, had
called up that of his beloved b During a summer vacation,
a school teacher, a poor but excellent young man, courted
the daughter of a summer resident, until the girl fell

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passionately in love with him, and even prevailed upon her
family to countenance the matrimonial alliance in spite of the
difference in position and race. One day, however, the teacher
wrote his brother a letter in which he said, pretty
the lass is not at all, but she is very amiable,
and so far so good. But whether I can make

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up my mind to marry a jewess, I cannot yet tell.
This letter got into the hand of the fiancee, who
put an end to the engagement, while at the same
time his brother was wondering at the protestations of love
directed to him. My informer assured me that this was
really an error and not a cunning trick. I am

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familiar with another case in which a woman who was
dissatisfied with her old physician and still did not openly
wish to discharge him, accomplish this purpose through the interchange
of letters. Here at least I can assert confidently that
it was an error and not conscious cunning that made
use of this familiar comedy motive. C Brille tells of

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a woman who, inquiring about a mutual friend, erroneously called
her by her maiden name. Her attention having been directed
to this error, she had to admit that she disliked
her friend's husband and had never been satisfied with her marriage.
Matter relates a good example of how a reluctantly repressed
wish can be satisfied by means of an error. A

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colleague wanted to enjoy his day of leave of absence
absolutely undisturbed, but he also felt that he ought to
go to Lucerne to pay a call, which he did
not anticipate with any pleasure. After long reflection, however, he
concluded to go for past time. On the train, he
read the daily newspapers. He journeyed from Zurich to arth Goldau,

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where he changed trains for Lucerne, all the time engrossed
in reading. Presently, the conductor informed him that he was
on the wrong train, that is, he had got into
the one which was returning from Goldau to Zurich. Whereas
his ticket was for Lucerne. A very similar trick was
played by me quite recently. I had promised my oldest

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brother to pay him a long due visit at a
seashore in England. As the time was short, I felt
obliged to travel by the shortest route and without interruption.
I begged for a day's sojourn in Holland, but he
thought I could stop there on my return home. Accordingly,
I journeyed for from Munich through Cologne to Rotterdam, hok
of Holland, where I was to take the steamer at

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midnight to Harwick. In Cologne, I had to change cars.
I left my train to go into the Rotterdam Express,
but it was not to be found. I asked various
railway employees, was sent from one platform to another, got
into an exaggerated state of despair, and could easily reckon
that during this fruitless search I had probably missed my connection.

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After this was corroborated, I pondered whether or not I
should spend the night in Cologne. This was favored by
a feeling of piety, for according to an old family tradition,
my ancestors were once expelled from this city during a
persecution of the Jews. But eventually I came to another decision.
I took a later train to Rotterdam, where I arrived

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late at night, and was thus compelled to spend a
day in Holland. This brought me the fulfillment of a
long fostered wish the sight of the beautiful Rembrandt paintings
at the Hague and in the Royal Museum at Amsterdam.
Not before the next forenoon, while collecting my impressions during
the railway journey in England, did I definitely remember that

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only a few steps from the place where I got
off at the railroad station in Cologne, indeed, on the
same platform I had seen a large sign Rotterdam Book
of Holland, there stood the train in which I should
have continued my journey. If one does not wish to
assume that, contrary to my brother's orders, I had really

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resolved to admire the Rembrandt pictures on my way to him,
then the fact that despite clear directions I hurried away
and looked for another train must be designated as an
incomprehensible blinding. Everything else my well acted perplexity, the emergence
of the pious intention to spend the night in Cologne

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was only a contrivance to hide my resolution until it
had been fully accomplished. One may possibly be disinclined to
consider the class of errors which I have here explained
as very numerous or particularly significant. But I leave it
to your consideration whether there is no ground for extending

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the same points of view also to the more important
errors of judgment, as evinced by people in life and science.
Only for the most select and most balanced minds does
it seem possible to guard the perceived picture of external
reality against the distortion to which it is otherwise subjected

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in its transit through the psychic individuality of the one
perceiving it. End of Chapter ten.