FORGETTING OF NAMES AND ORDER
OF WORDS

29

III

FORGETTING OF NAMES AND ORDER
OF WORDS

EXPERIENCES like those mentioned concerning
the process of forgetting a part of the order
of words from a foreign language may cause
one to wonder whether the forgetting of the
order of words in one’s own language requires
an essentially different explanation. To be sure,
one is not wont to be surprised if after awhile
a formula or poem learned by heart can
only be reproduced imperfectly, with variations
and gaps. Still, as this forgetting does not affect
equally all the things learned together, but seems
to pick out therefrom definite parts, it may
be worth our effort to investigate analytically
some examples of such faulty reproduc-
tions.

Brill reports the following example:—

“While conversing one day with a very
brilliant young woman she had occasion to quote
from Keats. The poem was entitled ‘Ode to
Apollo,’ and she recited the following lines :—

“⁴ In thy western house of gold
Where thou livest in thy state,
Bards, that once sublimely told
Prosaic truths that came too late.’

30

Psychopathology of Everyday Life

She hesitated many times during the recitation,
being sure that there was something wrong with
the last line. To her great surprise, on referring
to the book she found that not only was the
last line misquoted but that there were many
other mistakes. The correct lines read as
follows :—

ODE TO APOLLO

““In thy western halls of gold
When thou sittest in thy state,
Bards, that erst sublimely told
Heroic deeds and sang of fate.”

The words italicized are those that have been
forgotten and replaced by others during the
recitation.

“She was astonished at her many mistakes,
and attributed them to a failure of memory. I
could readily convince her, however, that there
was no qualitative or quantitative disturbance of
memory in her case, and recalled to her our
conversation immediately before quoting these
lines.

“We were discussing the over-estimation of
personality among lovers, and she thought it was
Victor Hugo who said that love is the greatest
thing in the world because it makes an angel
or a god out of a grocery clerk. She continued :
‘Only when we are in love have we blind faith
in humanity; everything is perfect, everything

31

Forgetting Names and Order of Words

is beautiful, and … everything is so poeti-
cally unreal. Still, it is a wonderful experience ;
worth going through, notwithstanding the terrible
disappointments that usually follow. It puts us
on a level with the gods and incites us to all
sorts of artistic activities. We become real
poets ; we not only memorize and quote poetry,
but we often become Apollos ourselves.’ She
then quoted the lines given above.

“When I asked on what occasion she memo-
rized the lines she could not recall. As a teacher
of elocution she was wont to memorize so much
and so often that it was difficult to tell just when
she had memorized these lines. ‘Judging by
the conversation,’ I suggested, ‘it would seem
that this poem is intimately associated with the
idea of over-
estimation of personality of one in
love. Have you perhaps memorized this poem
when you were in such a state?’”

She became
thoughtful for a while and soon recalled the
following facts : Twelve years before, when she
was eighteen years old, she fell in love. She met
the young man while participating in an amateur
theatrical performance. He was at the time
studying for the stage, and it was predicted that
some day he would be a matinée idol. He
was endowed with all the attributes needed for
such a calling. He was well built, fascinating,
impulsive, very clever, and … very fickle-
minded. She was warned against him, but she

32

Psychopathology of Everyday Life

paid no heed, attributing it all to the envy of
her counsellors. Everything went well for a
few months, when she suddenly received word
that her Apollo, for whom she had memorized
these lines, had eloped with and married a very
wealthy young woman. A few years later she
heard that he was living in a Western city,
where he was taking care of his father-
in-law’s
interests.

“The misquoted lines are now quite plain.
The discussion about the over-estimation of per-
sonality among lovers unconsciously recalled to
her a disagreeable experience, when she her-
self over-estimated the personality of the man
she loved. She thought he was a god, but he
turned out to be even worse than the average
mortal. The episode could not come to the
surface because it was determined by very dis-
agreeable and painful thoughts, but the uncon-
scious variations in the poem plainly showed
her present mental state. The poetic expres-
sions were not only changed to prosaic ones,
but they clearly alluded to the whole episode.”

Another example of forgetting the order of
words of a poem well known to the person I shall
cite from Dr. C. G. Jung,¹ quoting the words
of the author :—

“A man wished to recite the familiar poem,

¹ The Psychology of Dementia Præcox, translated by F. Peter-
son and A. A. Brill.

33

Forgetting Names and Order of Words

‘A Pine-tree Stands Alone,’ etc. In the line
‘He felt drowsy’ he became hopelessly stuck
at the words ‘with the white sheet.’ This for-
getting of such a well-known verse seemed to
me rather peculiar, and I therefore asked him to
reproduce what came to his mind when he
thought of the words ‘with the white sheet.’
He gave the following series of associations
‘The white sheet makes one think of a white
sheet on a corpse—a linen sheet with which one
covers a dead body—[pause]—now I think of
a near friend—his brother died quite recently—
he is supposed to have died of heart disease—
he was also very corpulent—my friend is cor-
pulent, too, and I thought that he might meet
the same fate—probably he doesn’t exercise
enough—when I heard of this death I suddenly
became frightened : the same thing might happen
to me, as my own family is predisposed to
obesity—my grandfather died of heart disease
—I, also, am somewhat too corpulent, and for
that reason I began an obesity cure a few
days ago.’ ”

Jung remarks : “The man had unconsciously
immediately identified himself with the pine-
tree which was covered with a white sheet.”

For the following example of forgetting the
order of words I am indebted to my friend Dr.
Ferenczi, of Budapest. Unlike the former ex-
amples, it does not refer to a verse taken from

34

Psychopathology of Everyday Life

poetry, but to a self-coined saying. It may also
demonstrate to us the rather unusual case where
the forgetting places itself at the disposal of
discretion when the latter is in danger of
yielding to a momentary desire. The mistake
thus advances to a useful function. After we
have sobered down we justify that inner striving
which at first could manifest itself only by way
of inability, as in forgetting or psychic impotence.

“At a social gathering some one quoted,
Tout comprendre c’est tout pardonner, to
which I remarked that the first part of the
sentence should suffice, as ‘pardoning’ is an
exemption which must be left to God and the
priest. One of the guests thought this observa-
tion very good, which in turn emboldened me
to remark—probably to ensure myself of the
good opinion of the well-disposed critic—that
some time ago I thought of something still better.
But when I was about to repeat this clever idea
I was unable to recall it. Thereupon I immedi-
ately withdrew from the company and wrote my
concealing thoughts. I first recalled the name
of the friend who had witnessed the birth of
this (desired) thought, and of the street in
Budapest where it took place, and then the name
of another friend, whose name was Max, whom
we usually called Maxie. That led me to the
word ‘maxim,’ and to the thought that at that
time, as in the present case, it was a question

35

Forgetting Names and Order of Words

of varying a well-
known maxim. Strangely
enough, I did not recall any maxim but the
following sentence: ‘God created man in His
own image,’ and its changed conception, ‘Man
created God in his own image.’ Immediately
I recalled the sought-
for recollection.

“My friend said to me at that time in
Andrassy Street, ‘Nothing human is foreign to
me.’ To which I remarked, basing it on psycho-
analytic experience, “You should go further
and acknowledge that nothing animal is foreign
to you.”

“But after I had finally found the desired
recollection I was even then prevented from
telling it in this social gathering. The young
wife of the friend whom I had reminded of the
animality of the unconscious was also among
those present, and I was perforce reminded that
she was not at all prepared for the reception
of such unsympathetic views. The forgetting
spared me a number of unpleasant questions
from her and a hopeless discussion, and just that
must have been the motive of the ‘temporary
amnesia.’

“It is interesting to note that as a concealing
thought there emerged a sentence in which the
deity is degraded to a human invention, while
in the sought-
for sentence there was an allusion
to the animal in the man. The capitis diminutio
is therefore common to both. The whole matter

36

Psychopathology of Everyday Life

was apparently only a continuation of the stream
of thought concerning understanding and for-
giving which was stimulated by the discussion.

“That the desired thought so rapidly appeared
may be also due to the fact that I withdrew into
a vacant room, away from the society in which
it was censored.”

I have since then analysed a large number
of cases of forgetting or faulty reproduction of
the order of words, and the consistent result
of these investigations led me to assume that
the mechanisms of forgetting, as demonstrated
in the examples “aliquis” and “Ode to Apollo,”
are almost of universal validity. It is not always
very convenient to report such analyses, for, just
as those cited, they usually lead to intimate and
painful things in the person analysed; I shall
therefore add no more to the number of such
examples. What is common to all these cases,
regardless of the material, is the fact that the
forgotten or distorted material becomes con-
nected through some associative road with an
unconscious stream of thought, which gives rise
to the influence that comes to light as forgetting.

I am now returning to the forgetting of names,
concerning which we have so far considered ex-
haustively neither the casuistic elements nor the
motives. As this form of faulty acts can at
times be abundantly observed in myself, I am
not at a loss for examples. The slight attacks

37

Forgetting Names and Order of Words

of migraine, from which I am still suffering,
are wont to announce themselves hours before
through the forgetting of names, and at the
height of the attack, during which I am not
forced, however, to give up my work, I am often
unable to recall all proper names.

Still, just such cases as mine may furnish
the cause for a strong objection to our analytic
efforts Should not one be forced to con-
clude from such observations that the causation
of the forgetfulness, especially the forgetting of
names, is to be sought in circulatory or func-
tional disturbances of the brain, and spare
himself the trouble of searching for psychologic
explanations for these phenomena? Not at all;
that would mean to interchange the mechanism
of a process, which is the same in all cases,
with its variations. But instead of an analysis
I shall cite a comparison which will settle the
argument.

Let us assume that I was so reckless as to
take a walk at night in an uninhabited neigh-
bourhood of a big city, and was attacked and
robbed of my watch and purse. At the nearest
police-station I report the matter in the follow-
ing words : “I was in this or that street, and
was there robbed of my watch and purse by
lonesomeness and darkness.” Although these
words would not express anything that is in-
correct, I would, nevertheless, run the danger

38

Psychopathology of Everyday Life

of being considered—judging from the wording
of this report—as not quite right in the head.
To be correct, the state of affairs could only be
described by saying that, favoured by the lone-
someness of the place and under cover of
darkness, I was robbed of my valuables by
unknown malefactors.

Now, then, the state of affairs in forgetting
names need not be different. Favoured by
exhaustion, circulatory disturbances, and intoxi-
cation, I am robbed by an unknown psychic
force of the disposal over the proper names
belonging to my memory; it is the same force
which in other cases may bring about the same
failure of memory during perfect health and
mental capacity.

When I analyse those cases of name-
forgetting occurring in myself, I find almost
regularly that the name withheld shows
some relation to a theme which concerns
my own person, and is apt to provoke
in me strong and often painful emotions.
Following the convenient and commendable
practice of the Zurich School (Bleuler, Jung,
Riklin), I might express the same thing in the
following form: The name withheld has touched
a “personal complex” in me. The relation of
the name to my person is an unexpected one,
and is mostly brought about through superficial
associations (words of double meaning and of

39

Forgetting Names and Order of Words

similar sounds); it may generally be designated
as a side association. A few simple examples
will best illustrate the nature of the same:—

(a) A patient requested me to recommend to
him a sanatorium in the Riviera. I knew of
such a place very near Genoa, I also recalled
the name of the German colleague who was
in charge of the place, but the place itself I
could not name, well as I believed I knew
it. There was nothing left to do but ask the
patient to wait, and to appeal quickly to the
women of the family.

“Just what is the name of the place near
Genoa where Dr. X. has his small institution
in which Mrs. So-and-so remained so long under
treatment?”
“Of course you would forget a name of that
sort. The name is Nervi.”
To be sure, I have enough to do with nerves.

(b) Another patient spoke about a neighbour-
ing summer resort, and maintained that besides
the two familiar inns there was a third. I dis-
puted the existence of any third inn, and
referred to the fact that I had spent seven
summers in the vicinity and therefore knew more
about the place than he. Instigated by my
contradiction, he recalled the name. The name
of the third inn was “The Hochwartner.” Of
course, I had to admit it; indeed, I was forced
to confess that for seven summers I had lived

40

Psychopathology of Everyday Life

near this very inn whose existence I had so
strenuously denied. But why should I have
forgotten the name and the object? I believe
because the name sounded very much like that
of a Vienna colleague who practised the same
specialty as my own. It touched in me the
“professional complex.”

(c) On another occasion, when about to buy
a railroad ticket on the Reichenhall Station, I
could not recall the very familiar name of the
next big railroad station which I had so often
passed. I was forced to look it up in the time-
table. The name was Rosehome (Rosenheim).
I soon discovered through what associations I
lost it. An hour earlier I had visited my sister
in her home near Reichenhall; my sister’s name
is Rose, hence also a Rosehome. This name was
taken away by my “family complex.”

(d) This predatory influence of the “family
complex” I can demonstrate in a whole series of
complexes.

One day I was consulted by a young man, a
younger brother of one of my female patients,
whom I saw any number of times, and whom I
used to call by his first name. Later, while wish-
ing to talk about his visit, I forgot his first name,
in no way an unusual one, and could not recall it
in any way. I walked into the street to read the
business signs and recognized the name as soon
as it met my eyes.

41

Forgetting Names and Order of Words

The analysis showed that I had formed a
parallel between the visitor and my own brother
which centred in the question: “Would my
brother, in a similar case, have behaved like him
or even more contrarily?” The outer connec-
tion between the thoughts concerning the
stranger and my own family was rendered
possible through the accident that the name of
the mothers in each case was the same, Amelia.
Subsequently I also understood the substitutive
names, Daniel and Frank, which obtruded them-
selves without any explanation. These names, as
well as Amelia, belong to Schiller’s play The
Robbers; they are all connected with a joke of
the Vienna pedestrian, Daniel Spitzer.

(e) On another occasion I was unable to find
a patient’s name which had a certain reference to
my early life. The analysis had to be followed
over a long devious road before the desired name
was discovered. The patient expressed his ap-
prehension lest he should lose his eyesight; this
recalled a young man who became blind from
a gunshot, and this again led to a picture of
another youth who shot himself, and the latter
bore the same name as my first patient, though
not at all related to him. The name became
known to me, however, only after the anxious
apprehension from these two juvenile cases was
transferred to a person of my own family.

Thus an incessant stream of “self-reference”

42

Psychopathology of Everyday Life

flows through my thoughts concerning which I
usually have no inkling, but which betrays itself
through such name-
forgetting. It seems as if
I were forced to compare with my own person all
that I hear about strangers, as if my personal
complexes became stirred up at every information
from others. It seems impossible that this should
be an individual peculiarity of my own person;
it must, on the contrary, point to the way we
grasp outside matters in general. I have reasons
to assume that other individuals meet with
experiences quite similar to mine.

The best example of this kind was reported to
me by a gentleman named Lederer as a personal
experience. While on his wedding trip in Venice
he came across a man with whom he was but
slightly acquainted, and whom he was obliged to
introduce to his wife. As he forgot the name of
the stranger he got himself out of the embarrass-
ment the first time by mumbling the name unin-
telligibly. But when he met the man a second
time, as is inevitable in Venice, he took him aside
and begged him to help him out of the difficulty
by telling him his name, which he unfortunately
had forgotten. The answer of the stranger
pointed to a superior knowledge of human
nature: “I readily believe that you did not grasp
my name. My name is like yours–Lederer!”

One cannot suppress a slight feeling of un-
pleasantness on discovering his own name in a

43

Forgetting Names and Order of Words

stranger. I had recently felt it very plainly when
I was consulted during my office hours by a man
named S. Freud. However, I am assured by one
of my own critics that in this respect he behaves
in quite the opposite manner.

(f) The effect of personal relation can be
recognized also in the following examples re-
ported by Jung.¹

“Mr. Y. falls in love with a lady who soon
thereafter marries Mr. X. In spite of the fact
that Mr. Y. was an old acquaintance of Mr. X.,
and had business relations with him, he re-
peatedly forgot the name, and on a number of
occasions, when wishing to correspond with X., he
was obliged to ask other people for his name.”

However, the motivation for the forgetting is
more evident in this case than in the preceding
ones, which were under the constellation of the
personal reference. Here the forgetting is mani-
festly a direct result of the dislike of Y. for the
happy rival; he does not wish to know anything
about him.

(g) The following case, reported by Ferenczi,
the analysis of which is especially instructive
through the explanation of the substitutive
thoughts (like Botticelli-Boltraffio to Signorelli),
shows in a somewhat different way how self-
reference leads to the forgetting of a name:—

“A lady who heard something about psycho-
 

¹ The Psychology of Dementia Præcox, p. 45.

44

Psychopathology of Everyday Life

analysis could not recall the name of the
psychiatrist, Young (Jung).

“Instead, the following names occurred to her:
Kl. (a name)—Wilde—Nietzsche—Hauptmann.

“I did not tell her the name, and requested her
to repeat her free associations to every thought.

“To Kl. she at once thought of Mrs. Kl., that
she was an embellished and affected person who
looked very well for her age. ‘She does not
age.’ As a general and principal conception of
Wilde and Nietzsche, she gave the association
‘mental disease.’ She then added jocosely:
‘The Freudians will continue looking for the
causes of mental diseases until they themselves
become insane.’ She continued: ‘I cannot bear
Wilde and Nietzsche. I do not understand them.
I hear that they were both homosexual. Wilde
has occupied himself with young people’ (al-
though she uttered in this sentence the correct
name she still could not remember it).

“To Hauptmann she associated the words half
and youth, and only after I called her attention
to the word youth did she become aware that she
was looking for the name Young (Jung).”

It is clear that this lady, who had lost her hus-
band at the age of thirty-nine, and had no pros-
pect of marrying a second time, had cause enough
to avoid reminiscences recalling youth or old age.
The remarkable thing is that the concealing
thoughts of the desired name came to the surface

Forgetting Names and Order of Words

as simple associations of content without any
sound-associations.

(h) Still different and very finely motivated is
an example of name-
forgetting which the person
concerned has himself explained.

“While taking an examination in philosophy
as a minor subject I was questioned by the
examiner about the teachings of Epicurus, and
was asked whether I knew who took up his teach-
ings centuries later. I answered that it was
Pierre Gassendi, whom two days before while in
a café I had happened to hear spoken of as a
follower of Epicurus. To the question how I
knew this I boldly replied that I had taken an
interest in Gassendi for a long time. This
resulted in a certificate with a magna cum laude,
but later, unfortunately, also in a persistent tend-
ency to forget the name Gassendi. I believe that
it is due to my guilty conscience that even now
I cannot retain this name despite all efforts. I
had no business knowing it at that time.”

To have a proper appreciation of the intense
repugnance entertained by our narrator against
the recollection of this examination episode, one
must have realized how highly he prizes his
doctor’s degree, and for how many other things
this substitute must stand.

I add here another example of forgetting the
name of a city, an instance which is perhaps not
as simple as those given before, but which will

45

46

Psychopathology of Everyday Life

appear credible and valuable to those more
familiar with such investigations. The name of
an Italian city withdrew itself from memory on
account of its far-reaching sound-
similarity to a woman’s first name, which was in turn connected
with various emotional reminiscences which were
surely not exhaustively treated in this report.
Dr. S. Ferenczi, who observed this case of for-
getting in himself, treated it—quite justly—as an
analysis of a dream or an erotic idea.

“To-day I visited some old friends, and the
conversation turned to cities of Northern
Italy. Some one remarked that they still showed
the Austrian influence. A few of these cities were
cited. I, too, wished to mention one, but the
name did not come to me, although I knew that
I had spent two very pleasant days there ; this, of
course, does not quite concur with Freud’s theory
of forgetting. Instead of the desired name of the
city there obtruded themselves the following
thoughts : ‘Capua—Brescia—the lion of Bres-
cia.’ This lion I saw objectively before me in the
form of a marble statue, but I soon noticed that
he resembled less the lion of the statue of liberty
in Brescia (which I saw only in a picture) than
the other marble lion which I saw in Lucerne on
the monument in honour of the Swiss Guard
fallen in the Tuileries. I finally thought of the
desired name : it was Verona.

“I knew at once the cause of this amnesia.

47

Forgetting Names and Order of Words

No other than a former servant of the family
whom I visited at the time. Her name was
Veronica; in Hungarian Verona. I felt a great
antipathy for her on account of her repulsive
physiognomy, as well as her hoarse, shrill voice
and her unbearable self-assertion (to which she
thought herself entitled on account of her long
service). Also the tyrannical way in which she
treated the children of the family was insufferable
to me. Now I knew the significance of the sub-
stitutive thoughts.
“To Capua I immediately associated caput
mortuum. I had often compared Veronica’s head
to a skull. The Hungarian word kapzoi (greed
after money) surely furnished a determinant for
the displacement. Naturally I also found those
more direct associations which connected Capua
and Verona as geographical ideas and as Italian
words of the same rhythm.
“The same held true for Brescia; here, too,
I found concealed side-tracks of associations of
ideas.
“My antipathy at that time was so violent that
I thought Veronica very ugly, and have often
expressed my astonishment at the fact that any
one should love her: ‘Why, to kiss her,’ I said,
‘must provoke nausea.’
“Brescia, at least in Hungary, is very often
mentioned not in connection with the lion but
with another wild beast. The most hated name

48

Psychopathology of Everyday Life

in this country, as well as in North Italy, is that
of General Haynau, who is briefly referred to as
the hyena of Brescia. From the hated tyrant
Haynau one stream of thought leads over Brescia
to the city of Verona, and the other over the idea
of the grave-
digging animal with the hoarse voice
(which corresponds to the thought of a monument
to the dead), to the skull, and to the disagreeable
organ of Veronica, which was so cruelly insulted
in my unconscious mind. Veronica in her time
ruled as tyranically as did the Austrian General
after the Hungarian and Italian struggles for
liberty.

“Lucerne is associated with the idea of the
summer which Veronica spent with her employers
in a place near Lucerne. The Swiss Guard again
recalls that she tyrannized not only the children
but also the adult members of the family, and
thus played the part of the ‘Garde-Dame.’

“I expressly observe that this antipathy of
mine against V. consciously belongs to things
long overcome. Since that time she has changed
in her appearance and manner, very much to her
advantage, so that I am able to meet her with
sincere regard (to be sure I hardly find such
occasion). As usual, however, my unconscious
sticks more tenaciously to those impressions ; it
is old in its resentment.

“The Tuileries represent an allusion to a
second personality, an old French lady who

49

Forgetting Names and Order of Words

actually ‘guarded’ the women of the house, and
who was in high regard and somewhat feared by
everybody. For a long time I was her élève in
French conversation. The word élève recalls that
when I visited the brother-
in-law of my present
host in northern Bohemia I had to laugh a great
deal because the rural population referred to the
élèves (pupils) of the school of forestry as löwen
(lions). Also this jocose recollection might have
taken part in the displacement of the hyena by
the lion.”

(i) The following example can also show how
a personal complex swaying the person at the
time being may bring about the
forgetting of a name.¹⁾

Two men, an elder and a younger, who had
travelled together in Sicily six months before,
exchanged reminiscences of those pleasant and
interesting days.

“Let’s see, what was the name of that place,”
asked the younger, “where we passed the night
before taking the trip to Selinunt? Calatafini,
was it not?”

The elder rejected this by saying: “Certainly
not; but I have forgotten the name, too, although
I can recall perfectly all the details of the place.
Whenever I hear some one forget a name it im-
mediately produces forgetfulness in me. Let us
look for the name. I cannot think of any other

¹⁾ Zentralb. f. Psychoanalyse, I. 9, 1911.

50

Psychopathology of Everyday Life

name except Caltanisetta, which is surely not
correct.”

“No,” said the younger, “the name begins
with, or contains, a w.”

“But the Italian language contains no w,”
retorted the elder.

“I really meant a v, and I said w because I
am accustomed to interchange them in my mother
tongue.”

The elder, however, objected to the v. He
added: “I believe that I have already forgotten
many of the Sicilian names. Suppose we try to
find out. For example, what is the name of the
place situated on a height which was called Enna
in antiquity?”

“Oh, I know that : Castrogiovanni.” In the
next moment the younger man discovered the lost
name. He cried out ‘Castelvetrano,’ and was
pleased to be able to demonstrate the supposed v.
For a moment the elder still lacked the feeling
of recognition, but after he accepted the name he
was able to state why it had escaped him. He
thought: “Obviously because the second half,
vetrano, suggests veteran. I am aware that I am
not quite anxious to think of ageing, and react
peculiarly when I am reminded of it. Thus, e.g.,
I had recently reminded a very esteemed friend in
most unmistakable terms that he had ‘long ago
passed the years of youth,’ because before this
he once remarked in the most flattering manner,

51

Forgetting Names and Order of Words

‘I am no longer a young man.’ That my resist-
ance was directed against the second half of the
name Castelvetrano is shown by the fact that the
initial sound of the same returned in the substi-
tutive name Caltanisetta.”

“What about the name Caltanisetta itself?”
asked the younger.

“That always seemed to me like a pet name of
a young woman,” admitted the elder.

Somewhat later he added: “The name for
Enna was also only a substitutive name. And
now it occurs to me that the name Castrogiovanni,
which obtruded itself with the aid of a ration-
alization, alludes as expressly to giovane, young,
as the last name, Castelvetrano, to veteran.”

The older man believed that he had thus
accounted for his forgetting the name. What
the motive was that led the young man to this
memory failure was not investigated.

In some cases one must have recourse to all the
fineness of psychoanalytic technique in order to
explain the forgetting of a name. Those who
wish to read an example of such work I refer to a
communication by Professor E. Jones.¹

I could multiply the examples of name-
forgetting and prolong the discussion very much further
if I did not wish to avoid elucidating here almost
all the view-points which will be considered in

¹ “Analyse eines Falles von Namenvergessen,” Zentralb.
f. Psychoanalyse, Jahrg. II, Heft 2, 1911.

52

Psychopathology of Everyday Life

later themes. I shall, however, take the liberty
of comprehending in a few sentences the results
of the analyses reported here.

The mechanism of forgetting, or rather of
losing or temporary forgetting of a name, con-
sists in the disturbance of the intended reproduc-
tion of the name through a strange stream of
thought unconscious at the time. Between the
disturbed name and the disturbing complex there
exists a connection either from the beginning or
such a connection has been formed—perhaps by
artificial means—through superficial (outer)
associations.

The self-reference complex (personal, family
or professional) proves to be the most effective of
the disturbing complexes.

A name which by virtue of its many meanings
belongs to a number of thought associations
(complexes) is frequently disturbed in its connec-
tion to one series of thoughts through a stronger
complex belonging to the other associations.

To avoid the awakening of pain through
memory is one of the objects among the motives
of these disturbances.

In general one may distinguish two principal
cases of name-forgetting; when the name itself
touches something unpleasant, or when it is
brought into connection with other associations
which are influenced by such effects. So that
names can be disturbed on their own account or

53

Forgetting Names and Order of Words

on account of their nearer or more remote
associative relations in the reproduction.

A review of these general principles readily
convinces us that the temporary forgetting of a
name is observed as the most frequent faulty
action of our mental functions.

However, we are far from having described all
the peculiarities of this phenomenon. I also wish
to call attention to the fact that name-forgetting
is extremely contagious. In a conversation
between two persons the mere mention of having
forgotten this or that name by one often suffices
to induce the same memory slip in the other. But
wherever the forgetting is induced, the sought for
name easily comes to the surface.

There is also a continuous forgetting of names
in which whole chains of names are withdrawn
from memory. If in the course of endeavouring
to discover an escaped name one finds others
with which the latter is intimately connected, it
often happens that these new names also escape.
The forgetting thus jumps from one name to
another, as if to demonstrate the existence of a
hindrance not to be easily removed.