ERRORS

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X

ERRORS

ERRORS of memory are distinguished from for-
getting and false recollections through one
feature only, namely, that the error (false recol-
lection) is not recognized as such but finds
credence. However, the use of the expression
“error” seems to depend on still another con-
dition. 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 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,¹
I was responsible for a series of errors in his-
torical, and above all, in material facts, which
I was astonished to discover after the appearance

¹Translated by A. A. Brill. The Macmillan Company, New
York ; George Allen Company, London.

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Psychopathology of Everyday Life

of the book. On closer examination I found
that they did not originate from my ignorance,
but could be traced to errors of memory ex-
plainable by means of analysis.

(a) On page 361 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 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 Marbach. I maintain that I always
knew this.

(b) On page 165 Hannibal’s father is called
Hasdrubal. This error was particularly annoy-
ing to me, but it was most corroborative of my
conception of such errors. Few readers of the
book are better posted on the history of the
Barkides than the author who wrote this error
and overlooked it in three proofs. The name of
Hannibal’s father was Hamilcar Barkas; Has-
drubal was the name of Hannibal’s brother as
well as that of his brother-in-law and prede-
cessor in command.

(c) On pages 217 and 492 I assert that Zeus
emasculates his father Kronos, and hurls him
from the throne. This horror I have errone-
ously advanced by a generation; according to

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Errors

Greek mythology it was Kronos who committed
this on his father Uranos.¹

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 un-
usual material at my disposal, as the readers of
my books can verify? And, what is more, in
three carefully executed proof-readings I passed
over these errors as if struck blind.

Goethe said of Lichtenberg : “Where he
cracks a joke, there lies a concealed problem.”
Similarly we can affirm of these passages cited
from my book : back of every error is a repres-
sion. More accurately stated : the error conceals
a falsehood, a disfigurement which is ultimately
based on repressed material. In 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 disfigure-
ment of its outline. I could not 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

¹This is not a perfect error. According to the orphic
version of the myth the emasculation was performed by Zeus
on his father Kronos.

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Psychopathology of Everyday Life

repressed thoughts, or to material which is in-
capable of becoming conscious. In spite of this
it is said that enough material remained to offend
the more sensitive souls. The disfigurement or
concealment of the continuing thoughts known
to me could not be accomplished without leaving
some trace.

What I wished 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 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.

(ad a) Whoever reads through the dream
analysed on page 361 will find some parts un-
veiled; in some parts he will be able to divine
through allusions that I have broken off the
thoughts which would have contained an un-
favourable criticism of my father. In the con-
tinuation 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. I wished to suppress
this Mr. Marburg in the analysis from myself
and my readers: he avenged himself by in-
truding where he did not belong, and changed
the name of Schiller’s birthplace from Marbach
to Marburg.

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Errors

(ad b) The error Hasdrubal in place of
Hamilcar, the name of the brother instead of
that of the father, originated from an association
which dealt with the Hannibal fantasies of my
college years and my dissatisfaction with the con-
duct of my father towards 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 acquain-
tance of my half-brother, by a previous marriage
of my father. 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 name of the brother for that of the father.

(ad c) The influence of the memory of this
same brother is responsible for my having ad-
vanced 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 con-
duct in life,” he said: “you belong not to the
second but really to the third generation of your
father.” Our father had remarried at an ad-
vanced age, and was therefore an old man to
his children by the second marriage. I commit

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Psychopathology of Everyday Life

the error mentioned where I discuss the piety
between parents and children.

Several times friends and patients have called
my attention to the fact that in reporting their
dreams or alluding to them in dream analyses,
I have related inaccurately the circumstances ex-
perienced by us in common. These are also
historic errors. On re-examining such in-
dividual cases I have found that my recollection
of the facts was unreliable only where I had
purposely disfigured or concealed something in
the analysis. Here again we have an unobserved
error as a substitute for an intentional conceal-
ment or repression.

From these errors, which originate from
represssion, we must sharply distinguish those
which are based on actual ignorance. Thus, for
example, it was ignorance when on my excursion
to Wachau I believed that I had passed the rest-
ing-place of the revolutionary leader Fischof.
Only the name is common to both places.
Fischof’s Emmersdorf is located in Kärnthen.
But I did not know any better.

Here is another embarrassing but instructive
error, an example of 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

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Errors

fetch them, though the truth of the matter was
that I had forgotten to look them up, since I
did not quite 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 als Kunststätte, and besides
this I imagined I had an historic work of a
similar order. Certainly there was Die Mediceer
(The Medicis); I took them and brought them
in to 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
practise justice; as I had so frequently inter-
preted my patient’s symptomatic actions I could
save my prestige only by being honest and ad-
mitting to him the secret motives of my averse-
ness 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 succumb to an error
or some other faulty act, which betrays my dis-
honesty, as was manifest in this and in the pre-
ceding examples.

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Psychopathology of Everyday Life

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
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 speak-
ing and writing. Every time we commit a lapse
in speaking or writing we may conclude that
through mental processes there has come a dis-
turbance 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
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 myself exclusively to
personal errors I will relate a few examples
which could 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.

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Errors

(a) I forbade a patient to speak on the tele-
phone to his lady-love, with whom he himself
was willing to break off all relations, 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 he was engaged in com-
posing the letter of refusal, he interrupted him-
self suddenly, and said to his mother, “Well, 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 “Adolf, have you gone crazy!” The
answering voice 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 passionately in love with him, and even pre-
vailed upon her family to countenance the matri-
s

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Psychopathology of Everyday Life

monial 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 up my mind to marry a Jewess I
cannot yet tell.” This letter got into the hands
of the fiancée, who put an end to the engage-
ment, 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 familiar with another case in which a
woman who was dissatisfied with her old
physician, and still did not openly wish to dis-
charge him, accomplished this purpose through
the interchange of letters. Here, at least, I
can assert confidently that it was error and not
conscious cunning that made use of this familiar
comedy-motive.

(c) Brill¹ tells of 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.

Maeder² relates a good example of how a
reluctantly repressed wish can be satisfied by

¹ Loc. cit., p. 191.

² Nouvelles contributions, etc., Arch. de Psych., vi. 1908.

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Errors

means of an “error.” A 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 reflec-
-
tion, however, he concluded to go. For pastime
on the train he read the daily newspapers. He
journeyed from Zurich to Arth Goldau, where
he changed trains for Lucerne, all the time en-
-
grossed in reading. Presently the conductor
informed him that he was in 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 brother to
pay him a long-due visit at a sea-shore 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 that I could stop
there on my return trip. Accordingly I jour-
-
neyed from Munich through Cologne to Rotter-
-
dam–Hook of Holland—where I was to take the
steamer at midnight to Harwich. 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

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Psychopathology of Everyday Life

reckon that during this fruitless search I had
probably missed my connection.
After this was corroborated, I pondered
whether or not I should spend the night in
Cologne. This was favoured 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 even
tually I came to another decision; I took a
later train to Rotterdam, where I arrived late
at night and was thus compelled to spend a
day in Holland. This brought me the fulfil-
ment 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 impres-
sions during the railway journey in England, did
I definitely remember that 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—Hook 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 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

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Errors

perplexity, the emergence of the pious intention
to spend the night in Cologne—was only a con-
trivance 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 the same points of
view also to the more important errors of judg-
ment, as evinced by people in life and science.
Only for the most select and most balanced
minds does it seem possible to guard the per-
ceived picture of external reality against the dis-
tortion to which it is otherwise subjected in its
transit through the psychic individuality of the
one perceiving it.