Introduction to Psychoanalysis

Chapter 3 Psychology of Negligence (2)
In 1895, the linguist Mellinger and the psychiatrist Mayer tried to study the phenomenon of slips of the tongue from this perspective.They collected examples extensively and discussed them purely from a narrative point of view.Of course, this is not an explanation, but it can lead to an explanation.They classified errors into five types: "inversion" (inversion of syllables, letters), advancement, retention, mixing, and substitution.Now give examples.The so-called inversion is that "the owner of the yellow dog" is mistaken for "the owner's yellow dog". Your Excellency is here", yes.And the mixture of letters in the sentence, such as the missionary said: "How often do we feel a half-warmed fish within us." (How often do we feel a half-warmed fish within us.) is actually "We often feel some warmth in our hearts." (How often do we feel a half-within us).Furthermore, some people say that unrequited love is passive unrequited love, but they mistakenly say "this time is being loved", that is, moving forward.Speaking of indwelling, it is produced by the interference of the syllables to be spoken by the syllables already spoken, such as "Everyone, please raise your glass (auzustossen) to the health of our leader", and the slip of the tongue is "Everyone, please hiccup ( aufzustossen), health to our leader".

In another case, a member of parliament mistakenly said "Hull" as "Hell" when referring to another member of parliament, that is, "honourable member for Central Hell" (honourable member for Central Hell); Mistakenly referring to "guard" as "for-tified-mortified" becomes "I would like 1000 of us to be defeated on the mountain", which is a lien. A more common example of a "mixed" type of error is when a man asks a woman if he can "escort" (begleiten) her all the way and says "deliver" (beleidigen is a mixture of begleiten escort and beleidigen insults) her.But a young man who is so reckless will not please a lady; and if some poor lady says that she has an incu-rable infernal disease, it is to say "internal" into "infernal" (internal disease, that is, internal disease); another lady said: "Men are less aware of all the useless values ​​​​of women", that is, they misexpressed "affectional" (emotional) as "ineffectual qualities" (useless qualities) properties), these are called "replacements".

The explanations given by these examples are quite incomplete. Both Melinger and Mayer believe that when the sound and syllable sound value of a word are not equal, the higher sound value that has been emitted will interfere with the lower sound value.Obviously this conclusion is based on "lien" and "preposition", the fact is that these examples do not appear often.In other slips of the tongue, although different values ​​exist, this is not a problem.The most common form of slips of the tongue is the substitution of one word for another similar word, and many people think that this similarity is sufficient to explain the error.For example, a professor said at the beginning: "I don't want (geneigt) to evaluate the merits of the former professor", "not wanting" is a slip of the tongue "unworthy" (geeignet).

Saying what was meant to be said backwards is the most common and most noticeable slip of the tongue.This kind of error is by no means caused by the confusion caused by the similarity of pronunciation. Therefore, some people think that the conceptual connection between antonyms is strong, so their psychological connection is also very close.There are many such examples.For example, a Speaker of the House of Representatives begins a meeting by saying, "Gentlemen, there is a quorum for today, so I declare the meeting adjourned."

Any other association can also sometimes mess with it with unpleasant results.Once, the son of Helmholtz married the daughter of the industrial leader and inventor Siemens, and the famous physiologist Dubois Lemon was invited to give a speech at the banquet.Of course he gave a great speech, and at the end he raised his glass to celebrate, saying: "Siemens and Halske have a happy [-] years", and the name of an old company happens to be Siemens and Halske, and everyone in Berlin knows it like a Londoner We all know "Crosse and BlackWel" like that.

Therefore, we must pay attention to the similarity between words and the sound value (sound-value vs, the value of sound), and we must also pay attention to the associations caused by words.Of course, this is not enough, because as far as a certain type of error is concerned, if we want to explain it satisfactorily, we must study sentences that have been said or thought before, and Mellinger believes that these are "forward" example, but the origin is farther away.So, I have to admit, I got the impression that slips of the tongue I knew very little about.

But, in studying the examples enumerated above, I hope I am right, and we are to note a valuable impression.What we have discussed above are the general conditions for the occurrence of slips of the tongue, and the results of slips of the tongue have not been studied.After studying the results of slips of the tongue, you will understand that they are very meaningful in themselves. The results of slips of the tongue can be regarded as a purposeful mental journey, a kind of content and meaningful expression.Once, we only talked about mistakes or negligence. Now it seems that this kind of negligence is sometimes a legitimate behavior, but it suddenly broke in to replace the more desirable behavior.

In these instances, the significance of negligence seems obvious.When the meeting began, the speaker announced the dismissal of the meeting, so we can think of some situations, and we can understand the significance of the error.He believed that this meeting must not have a good result, and that it would be a pleasure to adjourn it; therefore, the meaning of this mistake is not difficult to guess.Another example is that a woman praised another lady and said: "I think you must have twisted this beautiful hat." very bad.Another example is a lady who is notoriously self-righteous. She said: "My husband asked the doctor to draw up a diet. The doctor said that he doesn't need any special food. He just needs to eat the food I choose." The meaning of this mistake is also clear at a glance.

Now, assuming that most slips of the tongue, and slips in general, have significance, the significance of slips, which we have never noticed before, must be specially noted; and other points have to take a back seat.Let us neglect the physical and psychological conditions, and devote all our attention to the purely psychological findings concerning the meaning of fault.We can now use this point of view to further discuss the material on negligence.

However, before discussing it, you should pay attention to another clue. Poets often use slips of the tongue or other mistakes to serve literary expression.It also shows that he thought the slip or slip of the tongue meant something, since it was clearly intentional.This is definitely not his clerical error, and it makes this a slip of the tongue of the characters in the play.He uses it to express a deep meaning, and of course we can study what it means-whether he uses it to express the distractedness of the characters in the play, or the overwork or headache.If the poet does use errors to express his meaning, we need not pay much attention, of course.In fact, perhaps the error has no profound meaning, it is just an accidental event in the spiritual world, with only accidental meaning, but the poet can use literary skills to give it meaning to enhance the artistic expression.So instead of turning to linguists and psychiatrists for the study of slips of the tongue, it is a good idea to turn to poets.

In Wallenstein, written by the German poet Schiller, there is an example of such a mistake in the fifth scene of the first act.In the previous scene, the young Bicolomini accompanied Wallenstein's beautiful daughter to the camp. He understood the importance of peace, and therefore supported Duke Wallenstein's urge for peace.After he leaves, the boy's father, Octavio, and the minister, Questenberg, are astonished.There is a dialogue in scene five:
Questenberg: God, is that all?Friend, do we just let him be cheated and leave us like this?Don't call him back, don't open his eyes here and now?
Octavio: (Combined from deep thought) He has opened my eyes so that I can see clearly.

Questenberg: What did you see?
Ostavio: Damn the trip!

Questenberg: Why exactly?What exactly are you referring to?

Ostavio: Come, my friend!I must at once follow this omen of misfortune, and see for myself with my own eyes—follow me!

Questenberg: What?Where are you going?
OSTAVIO: (speaking hastily) To her.There she is.

Questenberg: To--

Ostavio: (correcting himself) To the Duke, come, come with me!

Ostavio originally meant "to the Duke", but he mistakenly said "to her". In just a few words, it can be seen that he cannot help but love the Duke's daughter.

The psychologist Rank obtained an even more impressive example from Shakespeare's plays.This example comes from The Merchant of Venice, where the lucky Bassanio chooses three treasure chests.Now I'd better paraphrase Ranke's short comment:

The slips of the tongue in Shakespeare's famous play "The Merchant of Venice" are undoubtedly the best in terms of poetic emotion and technique.The slip of the tongue in the play "Wallenstein" cited by Freud in his work "Psychopathology of Everyday Life" is similar to this slip of the tongue. It can be seen that the poet is also well aware of the mystery and significance of such slips, and assuming that most The audience can understand.Trapped by her father's wishes, Poxia must rely on God's will when she chooses a husband, and good luck frees her from all suitors she doesn't like.Bassanio, whom she admired, also came to propose marriage. She was worried that he would choose the wrong box, and wanted to tell him that even if he chose the wrong box, he could still win her love, but she could not tell him because of her promise to her father.In Shakespeare's play, in the midst of her inner conflict, she says the following to Bassanio:

Please wait a moment!After a day or two, go on an adventure!If you choose wrong, I will lose your friendship, so please wait a while!I feel as if I don't want to lose you (but it's not love)... Maybe I should tell you how to choose, but I'm bound by a vow so I can't tell you; you may not choose me because of it.But when I thought that you might choose wrong, I wanted to break this oath.Don't look at me, your eyes have conquered me, I am divided in two, one half is yours, the other half is also yours - I want to say mine, since it is mine, of course it is yours, So everything is yours now.

Poxia wanted to tell him secretly that before he chose the box, she belonged to him and had made a secret promise to him, but this deep meaning could not be said.Here, the poet uses Poxia's slips of the tongue to express his emotions, which can not only make Bassanio stop hesitating, but also make the audience rest assured and watch patiently.

Notice how, towards the end of the conversation, Posia's words of error and corrections were so skillfully reconciled that they did not contradict each other, but concealed the error.

"It's mine, and of course it's yours, so everything is yours."

Some non-medical scholars, whose observations reveal the significance of negligence, seem to be called the forerunners of this doctrine.Everyone knows that Littenberg is a witty and humorous satirist. Goethe once said: "If he tells a joke, there must be a hidden problem in it. He sometimes hints at the solution to the problem in the joke. "One time he satirized a person and said: "He often pronounces 'angenommon' as 'Aga-memnon' because he is too familiar with Homer." This can be interpreted as a misinterpretation.

In our next lecture we will examine whether we can affirm the poet's view of psychological errors.

(End of this chapter)