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XI

COMBINED FAULTY ACTS

Two of the last-mentioned examples, my error which transfers the Medici
to Venice and that of the young man who knew how to circumvent a com-
mand against a conversation on the telephone with his lady-love, have
really not been fully discussed, as after careful consideration they may be
shown to represent a union of forgetting with an error. I can show the
same union still more clearly in certain other examples.

(a) A friend related to me the following experience: “Some years ago,
I consented to be elected to the committee of a certain literary society, as
I supposed the organization might some time be of use to me in assisting
me in the production of my drama. Although not much interested, I at-
tended the meetings regularly every Friday. Some months ago, I was defi-
nitely assured that one of my dramas would be presented at the theater in
F., and since that time, it regularly happened that I forgot the meeting of
the association. As I read their program announcements I was ashamed of
my forgetfulness. I reproached myself, feeling that it was certainly rude
of me to stay away now when I no longer needed them, and determined
that I would certainly not forget the next Friday. Continually I reminded
myself of this resolution until the hour came and I stood before the door
of the meeting-room. To my astonishment, it was locked; the meeting was
already over. I had mistaken my day; it was already Saturday!

(b) The next example is the combination of a symptomatic action with
a case of mislaying; it reached me by remote by-ways, but from a reliable
source.

A woman travelled to Rome with her brother-in-law, a renowned art-
ist. The visitor was highly honored by the German residents of Rome, and
among other things, received a gold medal of antique origin. The woman
was grieved that her brother-in-law did not sufficiently appreciate the
value of this beautiful gift. After she had returned home, she discovered
in unpacking that—without knowing how—she had brought the medal
home with her. She immediately notified her brother-in-law of this by
letter, and informed him that she would send it back to Rome the next

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day. The next day, however, the medal was so aptly mislaid that it could
not be found and could not be sent back, and then it dawned on the woman
what her “absent-
mindedness” signified—namely, that she wished to keep
the medal herself.

(c) Here are some cases in which the falsified action persistently re-
peats itself, and at the same time, also changes its mode of action:

Due to unknown motives, Jones¹ left a letter for several days on his
desk, forgetting each time to post it. He ultimately posted it, but it was
returned to him from the Dead-
letter Office because he forgot to address
it. After addressing and posting it a second time, it was again returned to
him, this time without a stamp. He was then forced to recognize the un-
conscious opposition to the sending of the letter.

(d) A short account by Dr. Karl Weiss (Vienna)¹ of a case of for-
getting impressively describes the futile effort to accomplish something in
the face of opposition. “How persistently the unconscious activity can
achieve its purpose if it has cause to prevent a resolution from being exe-
cuted, and how difficult it is to guard against this tendency, will be illus-
trated by the following incident: An acquaintance requested me to lend
him a book and bring it to him the next day. I immediately promised it,
but perceived a distinct feeling of displeasure which I could not explain
at the time. Later, it became clear to me: this acquaintance had owed me
for years a sum of money which he evidently had no intention of return-
ing. I did not give this matter any more thought, but I recalled it the fol-
lowing forenoon with the same feeling of displeasure, and at once said to
myself: ‘Your unconscious will see to it that you forget the book, but you
don’t wish to appear unobliging and will therefore do everything not to
forget it.’ I came home, wrapped the book in paper and put it near me
on the desk while I wrote some letters.

“A little later I went away, but after a few steps, I recollected that I
had left on the desk the letters which I wished to post. (By the way, one
of the letters was written to a person who urged me to undertake some-
thing disagreeable.) I returned, took the letters and again left. While in
the street-
car, it occurred to me that I had undertaken to purchase some-
thing for my wife, and I was pleased at the thought that it would be only
a small package. The association, ‘small package,’ suddenly recalled ‘book’
—and only then I noticed that I did not have the book with me. Not only
had I forgotten it when I left my home the first time, but I had overlooked
it again when I got the letters near which it lay.”

I do not mean to assert that such cases of combined faulty actions can
teach anything new that we have not already seen in the individual cases.
But this change in form of the faulty action, which nevertheless attains

¹Loc. cit., p. 42.
²Zentralb. f. Psychoanalyse, ii. 9.

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the same result, gives the plastic impression of a will working towards a
definite end, and in a far more energetic way, contradicts the idea that the
faulty action represents something fortuitous and requires no explana-
tion. Not less remarkable is the fact that the conscious intention thor-
oughly fails to check the success of the faulty action. Despite all, my
friend did not pay his visit to the meeting of the literary society, and the
woman found it impossible to give up the medal. That unconscious some-
thing which worked against these resolutions found another outlet after
the first road was closed to it. It requires something other than the con-
scious counter-resolution to overcome the unknown motive: it requires a
psychic work which makes the unknown known to consciousness.