Slip Of The Tongue Essay

Freud defines parapraxes which are also known as slips, as “faulty actions.” He focuses on the ‘slip of the tongue’ which are errors made during speech. Among the explanations for such parapraxes are physical causes such as exhaustion and excitement, however Freud also accounts for people who are in their normal states. In their normal states, people may suffer ‘slips of the tongue’ due to relation in the sound of words and people can also be provoked into the ‘slip.’ However, unlike sound relation ‘slips of the tongue’ which may result in an irrational statement, Freud examines ‘slips of the tongue’ which produces a sentence that make complete sense but is the opposite of the intentional statement. This he believed had not been investigated

When you unconsciously say something that you did not intend or you dream something which you remember when you are conscious, the unconscious has then presented itself to/in the conscious. With the ‘slips of the tongue’ that Freud chooses to examine, people unconsciously substitute certain words for another, recognizing their mistake soon after. Interestingly, even with the unconscious substitution, these statements are the very opposite to what they person intended to say, however it makes complete sense. Freud uses the example of a President in the lower house of parliament saying, “Gentlemen, I take notice that a full quorum of members is present and herewith declare the sitting closed” instead of ‘open.’ Similarly with dreams, Freud shows his audience that dreams are unconscious substitute for occurrences of reality. He goes on to show that in order to figure out what exactly the substitute represents, a person must go through details of their reality and relate it back to the substitute. Freud gives his audience the example of a dreamer dreaming that he was “pulling a lady out from behind a bed” and interpreted that this meant that the man was “giving this lady preference” based on the information/ the latent dream-thoughts that the man provided him with. Therefore, one significant element that parapraxes and dreams have in common is the phenomena of unconscious substitution for the