Part 1

PSYCHOPATHOLOGY OF EVERYDAY LIFE

BY PROFESSOR DR. SIGMUND FREUD, LL.D.

AUTHORIZED ENGLISH EDITION, WITH INTRODUCTION BY

A. A. BRILL, Ph.B., M.D.

Chief of Clinic of Psychiatry Columbia University; Chief of the Neurological Department, Bronx Hospital and Dispensary; former Assistant Physician in the Central Islip State Hospital, and in the Clinic of Psychiatry, Zurich

NEW YORK THE MACMILLAN COMPANY 1914

(All rights reserved)

INTRODUCTION

Professor Freud developed his system of psychoanalysis while studying the so-called border-line cases of mental diseases, such as hysteria and compulsion neurosis. By discarding the old methods of treatment and strictly applying himself to a study of the patient’s life he discovered that the hitherto puzzling symptoms had a definite meaning, and that there was nothing arbitrary in any morbid manifestation. Psychoanalysis always showed that they referred to some definite problem or conflict of the person concerned. It was while tracing back the abnormal to the normal state that Professor Freud found how faint the line of demarcation was between the normal and neurotic person, and that the psychopathologic mechanisms so glaringly observed in the psychoneuroses and psychoses could usually be demonstrated in a lesser degree in normal persons. This led to a study of the faulty actions of everyday life and later to the publication of the Psychopathology of Everyday Life, a book which passed through four editions in Germany and is considered the author’s most popular work. With great ingenuity and penetration the author throws much light on the complex problems of human behaviour, and clearly demonstrates that the hitherto considered impassable gap between normal and abnormal mental states is more apparent than real.

This translation is made of the fourth German edition, and while the original text was strictly followed, linguistic difficulties often made it necessary to modify or substitute some of the author’s cases by examples comprehensible to the English-speaking reader.

A. A. BRILL.

NEW YORK.

CONTENTS

CHAPTER PAGE

INTRODUCTION v

I. FORGETTING OF PROPER NAMES 3

II. FORGETTING OF FOREIGN WORDS 17

III. FORGETTING OF NAMES AND ORDER OF WORDS 29

IV. CHILDHOOD AND CONCEALING MEMORIES 57

V. MISTAKES IN SPEECH 71

VI. MISTAKES IN READING AND WRITING 117

VII. FORGETTING OF IMPRESSIONS AND RESOLUTIONS 135

VIII. ERRONEOUSLY CARRIED-OUT ACTIONS 177

IX. SYMPTOMATIC AND CHANCE ACTIONS 215

X. ERRORS 249

XI. COMBINED FAULTY ACTS 265

XII. DETERMINISM, CHANCE, AND SUPERSTITIOUS BELIEFS 277

INDEX 339