Freudian reservation: what it means, examples. Freudian Reservation - What It Means, Examples

Freudian slip - the common name for the slip, a special case of the phenomenon described by Z. Freud in the study “Psychopathology of everyday life” (1901). Together with all sorts of minor clerical errors and machine actions covered by the term parapraxis.

Freud suggested that seemingly insignificant and meaningless erroneous actions serve to realize unconscious desires, being compromise formations created by the corresponding conscious intention and partial simultaneous realization of unconscious desire.

Freud divided the erroneous actions into four groups:

reservations, clerical errors, stonecrops, donkeys;
forgetting (forgetting the names of one’s own, others ’words, one’s intentions, impressions);
lost and hidden things;
"by mistake" actions.

Despite their seeming absurdity and innocence, Freud refused such actions to be trivial, treating them as a psychologically significant phenomenon - an outward manifestation of unresolved subconscious conflicts and repressed desires. As in dreams, Freud saw in parapraxis a potential "road" to the secrets of the unconscious.

Not all erroneous actions are easily understood, however, in the course of analytical work with the patient, sometimes it is possible to build assumptions about what exactly is the meaning of his, even the most complicated, erroneous actions. And the patient’s erroneous actions (for example, forgetting the session time or payment for treatment) allow the analyst and patient to obtain important information about resistance and transfer.

Literature

Psychopathology of everyday life \u003d Zur Psychopathologie des Alltagslebens / translated by G. V. Baryshnikova. - AST, 2009 .-- 256 s. - (Psychology). - ISBN 978-5-17-059766-6.

What do Freudian clauses really say about your psyche?

It is believed that words that accidentally slip off the lips are by no means commonplace speech errors. Many people think that such reservations reflect the secret desires of man. Let's try to figure out if this is really so.

Policies as objects for ridicule

At one time, the object of jokes and ridicule was US President George W. Bush. However, his father in 1988 issued the famous reservation, which he is remembered almost to this day. Then, as US Vice President, George W. Bush spoke live while on a working visit to Idaho. Suddenly, the following statement flew from the mouth of the vice president: “We had victories, but there were mistakes. This is a common practice of economic sex ... sorry, agricultural policy. ”

Freudian slip

We are used to calling such bloopers Freudian reservations. The father of modern psychoanalysis could be proud of his undying popularity. This happens often: a person, wanting to say one thing, ultimately gives out something completely different. All would be well if different obscenities that could put a person in an awkward position did not treacherously fly from the language. Sometimes a clause can turn into a real catastrophe, for example, if we are talking about speakers or reporters working on the air. Even more nightmare is the position of a speaker who has made a reservation to a crowd of thousands. Why are people inclined to make such ridiculous mistakes and do they really have a hidden meaning?

From the point of view of the founder of psychoanalysis

The famous psychoanalyst Dr. Sigmund Freud loved to wander around the back streets of the unconscious. His interests did not include the determination of the patient's explicit thoughts. According to the scientist, the true desires of a person with a head give out his reservations. Random speech errors in the scientific community are united under the term “parapraxis”, which is incomprehensible to a simple inhabitant. They are able to expose the forbidden impulses of a person, for example, secret sexual desires, firmly settled in the subconscious. According to Freud, speech errors are not random in nature and there is no such riddle that could not be solved.

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Modern scientists question Freudian theories

The problem is that the human psyche cannot be the subject of laboratory research. So, all theories, including this one, are purely subjective. Thus, many modern psychologists are not followers of Freudian teachings and cast doubt on the theories of the founder of psychoanalysis. Psychologists are joined by linguists and neuroscientists, who have their own point of view on the origin of reservations. Which of them is right?

Original study

Several decades ago, the authors of one original study decided to verify or refute the truth of Freud's theory. The protagonist of the experiment was a sexy girl, a stun gun was a tool to stimulate the unconscious. Volunteers, among whom were exclusively heterosexual men, were divided into three groups. An elderly professor was to accompany the participants from the first two groups to the audience. The final group of volunteers was more fortunate: their guide was a sexy lab technician in a very revealing outfit.

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One of the authors of the study, a psychologist practicing at the University of California, Michael Motley recalls: “We almost crossed the limits. For the experiment, the most attractive student was chosen, who was dressed in an ultra-short skirt and a transparent blouse. "

Spoonerism

When the participants went into the classrooms, they had to complete the task. Every second they had to read paired words to themselves. In fact, there was a snag. The pairs were composed according to the principle of sponerism, or phrases in which people can intentionally make a reservation by reversing the syllables. Here are the most prominent representatives - the eardrum (eardrum) or the imperishable "car dear, highly respected" (S.Ya. Marshak). The phenomenon itself was dubbed in honor of Professor William Archibald Spooner, who practiced at Oxford University. He became famous in the scientific community, due to his distraction.

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But back to our study. From time to time, participants had to read paired phrases out loud. In addition, the words should have been accompanied by an appropriate sound signal. If Sigmund Freud himself observed this experiment, he would exclaim: “I knew!” It is easy to guess that most of the reservations of a sexual orientation were made in the presence of a beautiful laboratory assistant. For example, the men in the control group pronounced the phrase “howl naked” rather than “wash their hair” or the expression “sweet cupcake” was replaced by “smooth sex”. It is noteworthy that the total number of sponerisms in all three groups was approximately the same.

The final part of the test

The third group was to pass another test. Electrodes with wires were attached to the participants' fingers, which were connected to a device that generated weak electrical impulses. However, the authors of the study hastened to deceive the participants, saying that the probability of receiving an electric shock in the event of a reservation could be 70 percent. Curiously, the number of reservations has not decreased.

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During the experiment, the level of sexual excitability was measured. Here, again, everything is logical. The most worried men made more reservations of a sexual nature.

“The Polar Bear Problem”

The classic of Russian literature Leo Tolstoy once defined a phenomenon in which a person falls into the trap of his own thoughts. The term “polar bear problem” came about due to the amazing features of the human mind. The essence of this theory is as follows: if you try not to think about any phenomenon or object, it will haunt your consciousness. If you do not think about the polar bear, thoughts about it will appear with enviable constancy. The heroes of this experiment, apparently, devoted all their efforts to trying not to think about sex. Therefore, there is nothing surprising in the subtext of their reservations.

Psychologist Daniel Wegner's explanation

Approximately this explanation of the Freudian reservations was given in the 80s of the 20th century by American Daniel Wegner. According to the psychologist, desperate attempts to avoid them can become the cause of mistakes. In fact, our subconscious mind can continuously filter thoughts so that secret desires do not have the opportunity to break out. The paradox of consciousness is the deliberate ignorance of once arisen insidious thought. And the more a person tries not to think about it, the more likely the traitor will arise again and again. Mystery will certainly be made public - it is a matter of time. When you prepare a speech in public, you carefully select the words and scroll through the mass of options in your head. In the event that there are too many of these options, the consciousness pulls out exactly what you fled for so long and hard.

Conclusion

Michael Motley conducted another interesting experiment. He asked his students to finish a simple sentence: "The old man made great flour ...". On the idea of \u200b\u200ba vacant place, you can pick up any word denoting a bakery product. However, the participants in the experiment most often mentioned “rolls”. And all because this word in different contexts has different meanings. In this vein, Freudian reservations are born. To top it off, the psychologist emphasizes that in stressful situations, as well as under the influence of alcohol, the probability of a potential error is further increased.

Do the words that accidentally fly out reflect our secret desires or are innocent speech errors? BBC Future Browser explores this topic.
In 1988, George W. Bush, who was then vice president of the United States, arrived on a working visit to Idaho. According to the program of the visit, he was supposed to make a live broadcast on television with a brief speech on the topic of agricultural policy, noting the successes he had achieved together with US President Ronald Reagan.

Suddenly, the politician said: "We had victories. There were mistakes - the usual lack of sex is economic ... that is, agricultural policy."
Even after the end of his political career, President George W. Bush remembered this famous reservation for a long time.
Oh, these Freudian reservations! We want to say one thing, but it turns out completely different - and kindness would be some harmless things, otherwise, some kind of stupidity striving to break from the tongue all the time can turn into a real disaster.
Such reservations are the worst nightmare for any speaker. But what makes us make such mistakes? And is there any hidden meaning in them?

Sigmund Freud, the founder of psychoanalysis, was not enough just to find out what the patient is thinking. He was sure that true desires can be learned only by paying attention to the slip of the tongue and other manifestations of the unconscious.
As one of the comic definitions of the Freudian reservation says, "I had in mind my mother, but my mother remembered."
Random speech errors, which are united by the term "parapraxis", can reveal forbidden impulses deeply hidden in our unconscious - for example, sexual desires or obscene expressions.
Speech errors are not accidental at all - they are riddles that can be solved.
There is only one problem: this idea, like many other assumptions of Freud, is not very verifiable. Sigmund Freud may be no less famous than Charles Darwin, but many modern psychologists, linguists and neuroscientists question almost all of his theories.
But is it possible to state with confidence that his conclusions about verbal errors are also wrong?

The authors of one of the early studies decided to test this hypothesis in a very original way: with the help of a sexy girl and a stun gun.
The study participants (heterosexual men) were divided into three groups. At the very beginning of the experiment, the first two groups were met by a middle-aged professor, and the third was conducted by a laboratory assistant in an open outfit.
"We came to the very limit of what is allowed at the university: the girl was very attractive, and she was wearing a very short skirt with a translucent blouse," recalls Michael Motley, a psychologist at the University of California at Davis (USA) and one of the authors of the study.
Participants were asked to read a few pairs of words to themselves, one per second. They did not even suspect that these pairs of words are the so-called “sponerisms,” that is, expressions in which people often randomly interchange syllables (for example, “eardrum” instead of “eardrum”).

This phenomenon is named after the professor of Oxford University, William Archibald Spooner, known for his absent-mindedness and a tendency to such permutations.
From time to time, participants were asked to read the phrase out loud, giving them the appropriate sound signal.
As Freud would have suggested, in the presence of a laboratory technician, men made much more reservations with sexual overtones (for example, “smooth sex” instead of “sweet cupcake” or “naked howl” instead of “head wash”) than the control group - despite the fact that the total the number of reservations was approximately the same.
In the third group, electrodes connected to an apparatus capable of generating weak electrical impulses were attached to the fingers of volunteers.
"We told the participants that the probability of getting a shock is 70%," Motley says. "Of course, that was not true."
And in this group mistakes were also made, showing what was on the minds of the readers (for example, “Colin Volt” instead of “Volin Colt” and “Kolka current” instead of “Coca Tolka”).

Then the scientists measured the level of sexual anxiety of the participants. It turned out that those who have it higher have made the most reservations with sexual overtones. But why?
Trying to suppress their desires, these men could fall into a trap called the “polar bear problem”, first noticed by the Russian writer Fyodor Dostoevsky: if you struggle to not think about anything - for example, about sex or the polar bear - in your head only this will climb.
It is on this phenomenon that the popular psychological game The Game ("Game") is based, whose main goal is not to think about the game itself. Thinking about it means defeat.
Following the rules, the defeat must be declared out loud - and then lose everyone who hears it. Nobody has managed to win the “Game” yet.

Back in the 1980s, American psychologist Daniel Wegner suggested that the reason for Freudian reservations might be the fact that we are trying to avoid them.
According to his theory, in the subconscious mind thoughts are constantly being filtered so that our innermost desires do not burst out.
But, paradoxical as it may seem, once an insidious thought, instead of being suppressed, can fall into consciousness and will scroll in the head again and again.
The secret will certainly become apparent - it is only a matter of time. “Thinking about something, we select the right words and prepare them in case we need to speak out,” Motley says.
If there are many options, the word that we ultimately choose can betray us.

Motley conducted another experiment, asking the participants to complete the sentence: "The old man made a great meal of flour ..." and at the same time measuring the level of their sexual arousal.
It would seem that a lot of words fit here in meaning: kalachi, pies, loaves of bread ... However, participants who felt attracted to the laboratory assistant often chose the word "rolls".
"This word is for two different situations, and therefore it is preferred. It seems to us that something similar happens with Freudian reservations," says Motley.
We can accidentally tell a friend that she is “plump”, wanting to call her “slim”, blurt out “pornography” instead of “photograph” at a business meeting or during sex call a partner by the name of a former lover. So our unconscious fails us.

On top of all the troubles under stress, the likelihood of making a regrettable mistake increases.
However, not all scientists share this opinion. During Freud's life, the most severe critic of him was the Austrian linguist Rudolf Mehringer.
During his work at the University of Vienna at the end of the 19th century, Meringer collected, recorded, and carefully analyzed thousands of speech errors, most of which he had heard from colleagues at dinner.
Scientists spoke in turn, and if someone made a reservation, the conversation stopped until the reservation was carefully documented.
After studying these notes, Meringer came to the conclusion that reservations are a confusion of letters, not meanings.
Psychologist Linguist Rob Hartsoyker of the University of Ghent (Netherlands) is convinced that most of these mistakes are completely innocent.

As an example, we can take the ill-fated reservation of journalist Jim Noti in the Today broadcast on BBC Radio 4 - he incorrectly pronounced the name of the then British Minister of Culture Jeremy Hunt, replacing the first letter with “k”, resulting in a rude curse.
At first glance, this mistake looks like a classic Freudian clause. However, in reality, it rather indicates how the brain regulates the function of speech, rather than Noti's attitude to politics.
Judging by the results of numerous experiments, if two words have a similar contextual meaning and have the same vowel in their composition, the likelihood of confusing the first consonants in them is very high.
“I’m sure that many people find Jeremy Hunt not a very pleasant person, but in this case there was a substitution of the sound“ to ”from the word“ culture, ”says Hartsøiker.
This is the result of how our brain extracts words from the depths of memory.
First, he selects a suitable word from a group of related concepts. That is how a pair of "culture" - "Hunt" could have arisen.

Once a word is defined, the brain selects sounds to express it - and at this stage consonants can be substituted.
"This is a very common occurrence, but Freud for some reason did not pay due attention to it," says Hartsøiker.
As the co-host of the same program successfully noted after the annoying mistake of his colleague, it was very reckless to appoint a person named Hunt to the post of Minister of Culture.
Despite numerous verbal traps, on average per day we can make a mistake in no more than 22 words out of 15,000.
Tomographic examination of the brain showed that most of the possible embarrassments are detected at the stage when we pronounce the words to ourselves. This allows us to filter them out and not speak them out loud.
"In the end, we pronounce everything correctly, but brain impulses indicate that a forbidden error still occurred in our thoughts," says Hartsøiker, who co-authored the study.

We are probably more prone to reservations when we are distracted or when our unconscious “spell check” does not work properly - for example, in a state of nervous excitement, fatigue or intoxication.
The number of errors can also increase with age or with increasing speech speed.
In other words, reservations can demonstrate what processes occur in the brain during the formation of speech, and even make it clear what we are thinking about at the moment and what we would rather be silent about.
However, whether they are able to reveal our innermost thoughts is a big question.
Some psychoanalysts, including Rosin Perelberg from University College London (UK), are convinced that reservations are important.

"They often become the subject of jokes, but in fact they are able to reveal something that a person would never have consciously talked about," she believes. "Personally, I always take them very seriously."
As an example, she cites a patient whose disclaimer revealed his subconscious fears that he might harm his unborn child (the man said “beat” instead of “drink”).
Hartsoyker is skeptical of such claims. "Scientific evidence suggests that these reservations about Freud are very, very rare," he says.
Other scholars believe that the explanation depends on a specific reservation. “Do I agree that all reservations without exception are the result of the unconscious? No. But do I agree that Freud reservations exist? Yes, I agree,” Motley says.
So, in what category is George W. Bush’s mistake? It is unlikely that we will ever find out about this. Most likely, she only testifies that she and Reagan were sexual ... sorry, business partners.

What is a “Freudian clause” really? Is it just a stumble, a misfire in the search mechanism for a suitable word, or something more - the result of an involuntary, subconscious thought or desire? Why do such reservations arise? Can they help us discover and unravel the knots of the once crowded out and unresolved conflicts that cause mental suffering? The scientist, clinical psychologist, psychotherapist Jay Watts addresses Freud's almost forgotten ideas and examines how our desires are affirmed through language, and reservations, like dreams, become the main "road" leading to the secrets of the unconscious.

As far as I can remember, I have always been interested in Freudian reservations. In the place where I grew up, etiquette was everywhere. My mother spent a lot of time preparing “food on wheels” for the elderly, helping local young people with disabilities, and greatly appreciated such manifestations of virtue. She never said a bad word about anyone and was always dressed flawlessly. One day at Christmas, she took us with her for the evening to the neighbors, who, it was rumored, envied her. When the evening was drawing to a close, my mother went to the mistress of the house and thanked her not for kindness, but for cowardice ⓘ English puns hospitality (hospitality) and hostility (hostility). - approx. translator.. Despite the annoyance my mother experienced, this confusion meant something. Her true thoughts broke through the unconscious in the form of a reservation, and holding our breath for a short time, we all laughed heartily at her.

A similar reaction of uncontrollable laughter was when on the BBC 4 radio in December 2010 the host James Noty instead of the surname Hunt (he wanted to pronounce the surname of the English politician Jeremy Hunt) completely lost his tongue ⓘ Instead of English. Hunt sounded Cunt - a rude word with female genitalia as its main meaning. - approx. translator.. For the next ten minutes, Noty tried to hide his laughter, disguising it as a cough. And as usual, this camouflage only emphasized the comic nature of the reservations made.

The Freudian clause always carries an element of the forbidden - it contains a reference to a rude word or insult. In the book “The Psychopathology of Everyday Life”, Sigmund Freud calls such reservations Fehlleistungen (literally “false actions”), although his editor preferred the term “parapraxis” (“insignificant mistake”). For Freud, reservations were, without a doubt, the result of involuntary, subconscious thought, desire. We make a reservation because a repressed element tries to affirm itself whenever possible. Reservations, like dreams, are the main "road" leading to the secrets of the unconscious.

Despite universal cultural acceptance, Freud's ideas are considered obsolete and irrelevant.

The technique of free associations was invented just to study these “mistakes” in speech, memory (in the analysis of oblivion) \u200b\u200band actions. Freud said that “the patient’s random expressions and fantasies - although they want to remain secret - still deliberately betray what is in the unconscious. When analyzing the chain of associations, special significance is given to the superfluous, incorrect, missing word. The question is “why?” What was hidden from consciousness? ”

This way of understanding human experience pervades our cultural world. Think of films ranging from Cruel Intentions (1999) to Twilight, in which the clumsy teenage angularity suddenly disappears right after the first kiss. The scriptwriters seem to have suggested that for the main characters there is no need to stumble, fall or embarrassingly drop objects as soon as the sexuality repressed until that moment was realized. In psychoanalysis, we unconditionally pay attention to all manifestations of parapraxis: they contain the key to the inner world of our unconscious. Although a careful examination of such hidden motives is complicated by the fact that they can manifest themselves only in “mistakes” that must be correctly interpreted. But with their help, we can discover and unravel the complex knots of forgotten causes, once crowded out and unresolved subconscious conflicts that cause mental and physical suffering.

Recognized by proponents of cognitive psychology and psychoanalysts, Freud's theory is now considered obsolete and impractical. Cognitive psychologists argue that the process of speech production is so complex that the appearance of errors is inevitable. Consider how speech arises. To begin with, an intention must arise that allows us to correlate a certain idea that we want to express with the word. This is how a preverbal message is formulated, an essential condition for the emergence of which is a contest between a certain number of words, from which we choose the most suitable one. Next, we move on to the grammatical form of the word. Usually our brain goes the simplest and shortest way - it selects the words that we used before. All this happens at lightning speed, this is a subconscious process - otherwise we would just go crazy.

Given the difficulties of this process, disruptions are likely. We can rearrange parts of words, syllables, for example: “ignore” becomes “not pay attention”, “dear car driver” turns into “car dear deep driver” (like S. Marshak) ⓘ Another example is given in the original: the self-destruct instruction ’-‘ the self-instruct destruction ’,‘ the reading list ’-‘ a leading list ’. - approx. translator.. For cognitive psychologists, these errors are simply failures, a misfire of the mechanism responsible for the quick search of words that our brain relies on.

But the popular culture has a different opinion on this. In the episode of the American sitcom “Friends” (1998), Ross, standing at the altar, says the name of the wrong woman whom he should marry at that very moment - Emily, but Rachel, his first love, whose image has haunted him for many years. The television audience understands the meaning of this mistake: Ross's true desire is Rachel. In “The Merchant of Venice,” Portia says Bassanio: “... O your eyes! I am divided by them in half. One part is yours and the other is yours ... ” Desire is affirmed through language.

An important contribution to the study of this issue was made by Howard Shevrin, a professor of psychology at the University of Michigan, who proved that words related to subconscious conflict are intensely repressed by patients. The Daily Mail responded with this headline:

“It didn’t work out faster: after 111 years of study, Freud’s theory of reservations has finally been proven - a new study is arguing.

In any case, Freud foresaw the criticism that cognitive psychologists would bring down on him. In his work, he emphasized that “favorable conditions,” such as “exhaustion, circulatory disorders, and intoxication,” could make reservations more likely. But interpreting these “favorable conditions” as the reason for the reservations would be akin to that, Freud says, as if you went to the police station after losing your wallet and blamed the uninhabited area of \u200b\u200bthe city where you ended up. If there was a theft, then there was a thief. The desire breaking out in the form of reservations is the very thief.

In some psychoanalytic circles, attention to the phenomenon of reservations slipping in the language has been supplanted by attention to the study of object relations, which represents a shift from a purely psychoanalytic approach to a psychodynamic one. The focus is now the type of relationship that the patient repeats in the process of psychoanalysis. A classic example from The Psychopathology of Everyday Life demonstrates this shift. Freud describes his meeting with a young man who mourned the futility of his generation. To back up his claim with a strong argument, he tried to reproduce the famous Latin proverb, but he missed the keyword aliquis (which means “a certain, something”) and could not remember it. He demanded that Freud analyze this hitch. Freud asked him to choose associations for a forgotten word, a chain of associations led to the following: liquid, floating, fluidity, liquid, relict, relics, St. Simon, St. Benedict, Art. St. Augustine January. Next, the man identified St. Yanuar both as a holy church calendar and as the one who performed the miracle of St. Januarius, which consists in diluting the saint's dried blood in an ampoule, taking place at his relics. People attach great importance to this miracle and worry if there is a delay, the patient claimed.

The young man thought it was to continue his explanation, but quickly stopped short. The blood and “delay” of the miracle that he spoke of reminded him of something completely different. Freud commented on the pause, and the young man revealed to psychoanalyst the reason for his concern, which lies in the suspicion that one girl, perhaps not from the best family, may have a child from him. So this hitch allowed the young man to realize the fear that he was trying to suppress. If this turns out to be true, he will bring shame on his family. For the first time he expressed what bothered him for a long time.

If this young man found himself in the room of a modern psychoanalyst, the method of constructing associations would be replaced by a transfer analysis, which is understood as the patient unconsciously transferring previously experienced feelings or relationships that manifested to one person to another. In this case, Freud as an authority. The focus would be on a model of relationships, as opposed to immersion in unconscious associations.

Similar limitations exist in cognitive-behavioral psychotherapy (CBT), which is often resorted to if there is a need to achieve the same result as quickly as possible for each individual patient. If difficulties arise in the accurate determination of symptoms, then the CBT uses the following method for identifying them: they fix the patient’s key idea of \u200b\u200bthe world, his deep-seated attitudes and beliefs, inviting him to complete the sentences “I ...”, “People ...”, “Peace ...”. Most patients end these sentences with the words “worthless,” “unreliable,” and “dishonest.” The disadvantage of such formulations is that as a result, the patient’s inner world is limited. Psychologists render their patients a dubious service, considering only the general appearance of the picture, neglecting the details, pieces, of which the life of an individual is composed.

On the contrary, communication technologies confirm that such reservations play an important role in our culture. If you just look on the Internet, you will find many compilations of such “mistakes” of politicians and celebrities. Under the long and close attention of cameras, celebrities often give out their true image: through a stream of words prepared and rehearsed, their real portrait appears.

We savor these reservations, especially when they come from the greats of this world. George W. Bush’s famous reservation clearly illustrates this example: “For seven and a half years I have worked hand in hand with President Reagan and am proud to have been his partner. We had triumphs. There were errors. There was sex ” ⓘ Bush said the word "sex" instead of English. setbacks, which means failure. - approx. ed.. Such errors lead the audience into real delight. Reservations become a wonderful litmus test. “You are not who you want to appear,” we say, laughing.

It is curious when reservations are made in cyberspace that they immediately try to ascribe the exact meaning, often with a libidous background. Thus, other reasons, something more mysterious and disturbing, are ignored. That is why we still need Freud's theory of unconsciousness in order to understand the rules of the game of hide and seek that the language leads us. By focusing on the meaning of reservations, we neglect the fact that “Freud reservations” most likely pose questions to us rather than answer them.

Starting therapy, patients fear that as soon as they tell their story, tell about the most significant events of their life, there will be nothing to add. Now, studying these "breakthroughs", "mistakes" in the language, there is always something to say, because this applies to areas that previously remained unknown. A reservation of my mother signaled about those hidden emotions that no one dared to show. It was the voice of a subconscious mind that suddenly declared itself.

Language, not being exclusively descriptive, ultimately includes our self-awareness. If we allow them to be, daily reservations, mistakes and erroneous actions can become a clue to our mysterious, imperfect, contradictory, exceptional personality. By placing “something more” in us, we get rid of the delusion that all our actions, thoughts are under absolute control, that we are full owners of ourselves and the image of our Self.

Policies as objects for ridicule

Freudian slip

From the point of view of the founder of psychoanalysis

Modern scientists question Freudian theories

Original study

Spoonerism

The final part of the test

During the experiment, the level of sexual excitability was measured. Here, again, everything is logical. The most worried men made more reservations of a sexual nature.

“The Polar Bear Problem”

Psychologist Daniel Wegner's explanation

Conclusion

Many of us are familiar with such an expression as “Freud's reservation,” but not everyone knows what these words mean and where they came from. Let's try to figure out this interesting question!

What is a Freudian clause

What does the expression Freudian reservation mean

We are talking about a fairly common expression, which implies a reservation made by a person because of some motives that he did not realize. The use of the name of Sigmund Freud here is quite natural, because he is the founder of psychoanalysis, the first to form the doctrine of the conscious as well as unconscious human basis.

Where did this winged expression come from?

Most of us are afraid to be in an awkward situation, speaking to the public or even chatting with someone in private. Partly the culprit of these experiences was Sigmund Freud, who at the beginning of the twentieth century published his famous work Psychopathology of Everyday Life. According to the "father of psychoanalysis," behind any of our most innocent caveats, there is something serious hiding — something that is trying to break out of our subconscious, exposing our true desires. Subsequently, this idea gained worldwide fame, and the term "Freudian reservation" is now present not only in academic life, but also among other segments of the population. It can be said that one of the many hypotheses of the doctor has become an axiom for many people, and now almost any reservation serious importance is attached. The interlocutor is trying to find a secret meaning in the words of the slip of the tongue, which often provokes awkward situations. Of course, this state of affairs exists due to Freud’s authoritarianism. Moreover, his followers also zealously propagated his ideas, although not all psychotherapists agree with them. By the way, as you know, the scientist developed this famous theory by working with a guy who incorrectly quoted the phrase from Aeneid in Latin. One word was missed by the patient, and the doctor decided that this circumstance would help him determine what was happening in the subconscious of the young man. Using associations, Freud was able to determine that the word reminded the client of the blood, which, in turn, was associated with the fear experienced by the guy about the pregnancy of his lover. According to the doctor, this word was blocked by the patient due to memories of negative experiences.

Who is Sigmund Freud and what is he famous for

Sigmund Freud was widely known as the founder of psychoanalysis. They had a significant impact not only on psychology, but also on sociology, medicine, literature and anthropology of the past century. He was trained by the French psychiatrist Jean Charcot. He subsequently admitted that practice taught him to see the differences between diseases and apply hypnosis, thanks to which many of his patients were cured. Freud was used in the treatment of conversation - people had the opportunity to speak out, thereby changing their minds. The technique was called the “Free Association Method”. Monologues from random phrases and thoughts allowed the insightful doctor to identify the patient's problems and find her solution. The psychiatrist stopped using hypnosis, preferring to communicate with patients who are in pure consciousness. As you know, the method is widespread. According to Freud, any psychosis can be called a consequence of human memories, which are not easy to get rid of. He deduced the theory that the vast majority of psychoses are based on the Oedipus complex and infantile childish sexuality. In general, the scientist was convinced that sexuality is a factor that significantly affects almost all psychological problems. Freud's opinion about the nature of man has become innovative for his era, and is resonant in the scientific community today.

Examples of Freudian reservations and their secret meaning

Once a famous politician Zyuganov noted during his speech: “We are supported by several million rubles,” while he wanted to say not “rubles,” but “people.” Naturally, the journalists quickly determined that the communist leader was really worried at that moment. George Bush Sr. once said: “We had victories. There were also mistakes - the usual lack of economic sex ... that is, agricultural policy. ” Subsequently, this reservation was repeatedly mentioned by politics more than once. Maria Morgun, being one of the journalists of the Vesti TV channel, at one time called the State Duma the State Duma. This disclaimer spread rapidly across the Web. Another television journalist, reading the news, in the title “Grand Slam Tournament” mistakenly replaced the letter “Sh” with “H”, which immediately led to persistent associations with the male genital organ. Once US Secretary of State K. Rice mistakenly called the then acting head of the country, George W. Bush, her husband. Taking into account these famous examples, it is not hard to guess what conclusions Sigmund Freud would draw. It is worth noting that the scientist was convinced that reservations arise due to the opposition of two different intentions that arose in the human psyche. He seems to be trying to block the intention, which should not become the property of others, and to emphasize another intention that he needs to convey. A person does not want to disclose the first intention for various reasons and tries to force him out of consciousness, but as a result, it is still found in the form of a reservation.

It is believed that a Freudian reservation is a statement aloud of something that is in the depths of the subconscious. Freud believed that many unconscious desires and aspirations turn out to be the cause of mental disorders, and when a person does not understand this on a conscious level, such reservations come into play. As a result, the term "Freudian reservation" today is considered a hidden desire that accidentally burst out . A man does not always manage to admit to himself that he desires something, but in the subconscious mind all these desires are fixed and “issued” by means of certain descriptions and reservations. The difficulty is that it is not always possible to determine the nature of the appearance of these speech errors and correctly decipher them. Although, of course, with a high degree of desire, this can be achieved.

Sigmund Freud created a whole theory of reservations, according to which it is possible to conditionally divide all the errors of human speech into the following categories:

All typos, slums, reservations, and stonecrops. Memory problems when names, words, impressions are forgotten, or things are unknowingly hidden. Facial expressions and gestures that do not match the words.If one of these problems was discovered, then, undoubtedly, there is a reason for this, because, as Freud believed, there is no place for chance in life. And, nevertheless, unfortunately, not all of them are understandable. Often we attribute such speech errors to overwork, depression or mental excitement, being sure that they do not carry a secret meaning. However, Freud fundamentally disagreed with this. If you try to understand in detail why a person said or did not write at all what he planned, then in the end you will notice that his action really made sense. Ordinary everyday situations often clearly reflect the confirmation of the theory of the famous scientist. For example, if you say “Don’t come more often” to your guests, instead of “Come more often,” this clearly indicates that for some reason these visits are not entirely pleasant to you on a conscious or unconscious level. Also, quite a popular phenomenon can be called forgetting someone’s name or the road to a house, building. Most often, we forget what is actually not very interesting and necessary for us.

Freudian Reservations for Men and Women: Examples and Interpretation

Perhaps the most widespread Freudian reservation, both among men and among women, is the situation when one of them calls his current second half by the name of the previous passion. Of course, most often this suggests that a person did not completely cross out past relationships - at least, that is exactly what Freud would probably interpret. By the way, fans of one of the most famous series of the world “Friends” will probably remember an example of such a situation - in a scene when Ross, being in front of the altar, called his bride the name of an ex-girlfriend. Naturally, the plot was obvious and subsequently confirmed that the hero at that time had not forgotten about the past relationship.

Psychoanalysis fundamentally changed the worldview of the human soul. For the first time, the sphere of the unconscious was investigated in detail. One of the possible manifestations of the latter is the so-called “Freudian reservation”. What does this mean and what is the opinion of modern psychologists? Find out the answers to these questions.

The structure of the psyche in psychoanalysis

One of the pillars of world psychological thought, Sigmund Freud made most of his discoveries as a result of observation of hysterical patients. He drew attention to the fact that hypnosis and other methods make it possible to discover and then heal the human soul.

As a result, he came to the conclusion that the motives of human actions not only and not so much can be explained solely by logic. This conclusion was contrary to the ideas of science of the XIX - early XX centuries, which elevated faith in the human mind and rational thinking to absolute.

According to Freud, the human psyche has the following essential elements:

I am the realm of the conscious;
Super-I - pressure from social prejudices and stereotypes;
It is an uncontrollable mental sphere. In simple words, they are the basis of human thinking.

In life, each person using his I AM" He is trying to find a common denominator between the moral ideas that exist in society and his deep hidden feelings. As the founder of psychoanalysis believed, the goal for each individual is to be able to tame his unconscious instincts and subordinate them to his mind.

Unconscious by Freud

As Freud believed, the part of thinking that is not sufficiently detected by the mind is unconscious. The filling of this area is made up of various desires and motivations that cannot go outside due to the prevailing ideas in society.

As a result, desires do not disappear anywhere, but continue to dwell somewhere in the corner of consciousness. They determine a significant part of a person’s actions. However, the personality itself is not able to determine the source of some of its actions. In psychoanalysis, it is believed that the correlation of the conscious and the unconscious is clearly in favor of the latter.

This situation can hardly be called healthy, since it leads to unpredictable antics and neuroses. Freud organized their treatment using the mechanism of uncontrolled associations: the patient lies on the couch and gives the doctor everything that only comes to mind.

Currently, the concept is somewhat rethought, and today there are several types of unconscious motives.

We list them briefly:

Having a natural genesis;
Consequence of experience;
The result of sublimation;
The impact of faith;
Unconscious group of people.

Freudian reservation: what is it?

In psychoanalysis, automatic actions, which are a minor error, are called reservations.

Freud himself used two terms: the Greek "parapraxis" ("other action") and the German "felaystungen", which means "violation of the original function." As the psychologist believed, with reservations, the unconscious comes out, which is available for analysis by a specialist.

Among the types of this phenomenon, there are:

Incorrect pronunciation, spelling, recognition of words, characters or images;
The loss of memory of any events, personalities or phenomena;
Loss, loss of sight of something substantial;
Acts of erroneous nature.

Such actions should not be misleading with the initial impression of absurdity. In fact, in a psychoanalytic context, they carry considerable weight. It is the omissions and typos that indicate the presence of desires that have no way out.

A qualified psychoanalyst can find the origins of reservations and various dysfunctional actions.

Types of Slips

In psycholinguistics, the following types of speech errors are distinguished:

Bringing your thoughts into the source language material (for example, “you and me” instead of “you”);
Rearrangement of parts of the sentence and reordering of words (“book for reading” - “reading for a book”);
Replacing syllables in a word;
Removing important parts of a word and whole words;
Errors of lexical selection (use of a word inappropriate to the context);
Rearrangement of morphemes;
Incorrect pronunciation of sounds;
A pun (also called a pun).

Some types of slips are difficult to classify in any particular category. The vast majority of them fall into several groups at once. In linguistics and psychology, there are other classification options.

Freudian reservation: what does it mean, examples

According to the American publication Psychology Today, the average resident of developed countries makes about a couple of mistakes for every thousand words. On average, every day, everyone makes 10 to 20 reservations. Emotional and mental stress seriously increases the likelihood of error.

In 2014, one prominent church hierarch of the Catholic Church, in the presence of a multimillion-dollar audience, uttered obscenities in Italian. An apology immediately followed, but the moment of the reservation circled the entire Internet.
One of the Vesti channel reporters, Maria Morgun, called the Russian legislature the State Duma instead of the State Duma. The word very quickly gained meme status in the Russian-language segment of the World Wide Web.
Another Russian TV journalist in the title “Grand Slam Tournament” replaced the letter “ w" on " h”, Because of which there were associations with the male genital organ.
US Secretary of State C. Rice once mistakenly called the then president of this country, George W. Bush, her husband.
US Senator Edward Kennedy at one of the speeches about the best people in the country began the passage about the female breast.

Alternative explanations

Not all modern psychologists adhere to a common opinion with Sigmund Freud. According to most of the scientific community, linguistic mistakes can be caused by a whole group of reasons that have nothing to do with the unconscious sphere:

Inattention;
Relaxedness;
Lack of knowledge: it is entirely possible that the author of the error is simply not literate enough.
Crash when using speech templates;
The consequences of emotional experiences;
The problem on the part of the listener: it is quite possible that he himself was the victim of a mistake, only a mistake in perception;
Deliberate distortion of speech in order to achieve the attention of the audience. This is a move especially liked by politicians. For example, in the 1930s, one of the US presidential candidates invented the term normalcy, which until then had not existed in the language.

When a speaker makes an absurd speech mistake — swaps words, sounds, letters, or even uses incorrect terms — they say that this is a Freudian clause. What does this mean in psychoanalysis? Explanation the true intentions of the interlocutor. However, not all psychologists share this point of view.

Video: Freud Reservations

In this video, a selection of the most original reservations on Freud TV presenters, "bloopers" live: