SYMPTOMATIC AND CHANCE
ACTIONS

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SYMPTOMATIC AND CHANCE ACTIONS

THE actions described so far, in which we recognize the execution of an unconscious intention,appeared as disturbances of other unintendedactions, and hid themselves under the pretextof awkwardness. Chance actions, which we shallnow discuss, differ from erroneously carried outactions only in that they disdain the support ofa conscious intention and really need no pretext.They appear independently and are acceptedbecause one does not credit them with any aimor purpose. We execute them “without thinking anything of them,” “by mere chance,” “justto keep the hands busy,” and we feel confidentthat such information will be quite sufficientshould one inquire as to their significance. Inorder to enjoy the advantage of this exceptionalposition these actions which no longer claimawkwardness as an excuse must fulfil certainconditions: they must not be striking, and theireffects must be insignificant.

I have collected a large number of such“chance actions” from myself and others, and

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after thoroughly investigating the individual
examples, I believe that the name “symptomatic
actions” is more suitable. They give expres-
sion to something which the actor himself does
not suspect in them, and which as a rule he has
no intention of imparting to others, but aims to
keep to himself. Like the other phenomena
considered so far, they thus play the part of
symptoms.

The richest output of such chance or
symptomatic actions is above all obtained in the
psychoanalytic treatment of neurotics. I cannot
deny myself the pleasure of showing by two
examples of this nature how far and how deli-
cately the determination of these plain occur-
rences are swayed by unconscious thoughts. The
line of demarcation between the symptomatic
actions and the erroneously carried out actions
is so indefinite that I could have disposed of
these examples in the preceding chapter.

(a) During the analysis a young woman re-
produced this idea which suddenly occurred to
her. Yesterday while cutting her nails “she
had cut into the flesh while engaged in trimming
the cuticle.” This is of so little interest that we
ask in astonishment why it is at all remembered
and mentioned, and therefore come to the con-
clusion that we deal with a symptomatic action.
It was really the finger upon which the wedding-
ring is worn which was injured through this

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Symptomatic and Chance Actions

slight awkwardness. It happened, moreover, on
her wedding-day, which thus gives to the injury
of the delicate skin a very definite and easily
guessed meaning. At the same time she also
related a dream which alluded to the awkward-
ness of her husband and her anesthesia as a
woman. But why did she injure the ring finger
of her left hand when the wedding-ring is worn
on the right? Her husband is a jurist, a “Doctor
of Laws” (Doktor der Rechte, literally a Doctor
of Rights), and her secret affection as a girl
belonged to a physician who was jokingly called
Doktor der Linke (literally Doctor of Left).
Incidentally a left-handed marriage has a definite
meaning.

(b) A single young woman relates: “Yester-
day, quite unintentionally, I tore a hundred-dollar
note in two pieces and gave half to a woman who
was visiting me. Is that, too, a symptomatic
action?” After closer investigation the matter
of the hundred-dollar note elicited the following
associations: She dedicated a part of her time
and her fortune to charitable work. Together
with another woman she was taking care of the
rearing of an orphan. The hundred dollars was
the contribution sent her by that woman, which
she enclosed in an envelope and provisionally
deposited on her writing-desk.

The visitor was a prominent woman with whom
she was associated in another act of charity.

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This woman wished to note the names of a num-
ber of persons to whom she could apply for
charitable aid. There was no paper, so my
patient grasped the envelope from her desk, and
without thinking of its contents tore it in two
pieces, one of which she kept, in order to have
a duplicate list of names, and gave the other to
her visitor.

Note the harmlessness of this aimless occur-
rence. It is known that a hundred-dollar note
suffers no loss in value when it is torn, provided
all the pieces are produced. That the woman
would not throw away the piece of paper was
assumed by the importance of the names on it,
and there was just as little doubt that she
would return the valuable content as soon as she
noticed it.

But to what unconscious thought should this
chance action, which was made possible through
forgetfulness, give expression? The visitor in
this case had a very definite relation to my patient
and myself. It was she who at one time had
recommended me as physician to the suffering
girl, and if I am not mistaken my patient con-
sidered herself indebted for this advice. Should
this halved hundred-dollar note perhaps represent
a fee for her mediation? That still remained
enigmatic.

But other material was added to this begin-
ning. Several days before a woman mediator

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Symptomatic and Chance Actions

of a different sort had inquired of a relative
whether the gracious young lady wished to make
the acquaintance of a certain gentleman, and
that morning, some hours before the woman’s
visit, the wooing letter of the suitor arrived,
giving occasion for much mirth. When there
fore the visitor opened the conversation with
inquiries regarding the health of my patient, the
latter could well have thought: “You certainly
found me the right doctor, but if you could assist
me in obtaining the right husband (and a child)
I should be still more grateful.”

Both mediators became fused into one in this
repressed thought, and she handed the visitor the
fee which her fantasy was ready to give the other.
This resolution became perfectly convincing when
I add that I had told her of such chance or
symptomatic actions only the previous evening.
She then took advantage of the next occasion to
produce an analogous action.

We can undertake a grouping of these ex-
tremely frequent chance and symptomatic actions
according to their occurrence as habitual, regular
under certain circumstances, and as isolated ones.
The first group (such as playing with the watch-
chain, fingering one’s beard, and so on), which
can almost serve as a characteristic of the person
concerned, is related to the numerous tic move-
ments, and certainly deserves to be dealt with in
connection with the latter. In the second group

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I place the playing with one’s cane, the scribbling
with one’s pencil, the jingling of coins in one’s
pocket, kneading dough and other plastic
materials, all sorts of handling of one’s clothing,
and many other actions of the same order.

These playful occupations during psychic treat-
ment regularly conceal sense and meaning to
which other expression is denied. Generally the
person in question knows nothing about it; he
is unaware whether he is doing the same thing
or whether he has imitated certain modifications
in his customary playing, and he also fails to
see or hear the effects of these actions. For
example, he does not hear the noise which is
produced by the jingling of coins, and he is
astonished and incredulous when his attention
is called to it. Of equal significance to the
physician, and worthy of his observation, is every-
thing that one does with his clothing often with-
out noticing it. Every change in the customary
attire, every little negligence, such as an un-
fastened button, every trace of exposure means
to express something that the wearer of the
apparel does not wish to say directly, usually
he is entirely unconscious of it.

The interpretation of these trifling chance
actions, as well as the proof for their interpreta-
tion, can be demonstrated every time with suffi-
cient certainty from the surrounding circum-
stances during the treatment, from the themes

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Symptomatic and Chance Actions

under discussion, and from the ideas that come
to the surface when attention is directed to the
seeming accident. Because of this connection
I will refrain from supporting my assertions by
reporting examples with their analyses; but I
mention these matters because I believe that they
have the same meaning in normal persons as in
my patients.

I cannot, however, refrain from showing by
at least one example how closely an habitually
accomplished symbolic action may be connected
with the most intimate and important part of the
life of a normal individual.¹

“As Professor Freud has taught us, the sym-
bolism in the infantile life of the normal plays
a greater rôle than was expected from earlier
psychoanalytic experiences. In view of this
the following brief analysis may be of general
interest, especially on account of its medical
aspects.

“A doctor on rearranging his furniture in a
new house came across a straight, wooden stetho-
scope, and, after pausing to decide where he
should put it, was impelled to place it on the side
of his writing-
desk in such a position that it
stood exactly between his chair and the one
reserved for his patients. The act in itself was
certainly odd, for in the first place the straight

¹ “Beitrag zur Symbolik im Alltag von Ernest Jones,”
Zentralb. f. Psychoanalyse, i. 3, 1911.

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stethoscope served no purpose, as he invariably
used a binaural one; and in the second place
all his medical apparatus and instruments were
always kept in drawers, with the sole exception
of this one. However, he gave no thought to
the matter until one day it was brought to his
notice by a patient who had never seen a wooden
stethoscope, asking him what it was. On being
told, she asked why he kept it there. He
answered in an offhand way that that place was as
good as any other. This, however, started him
thinking, and he wondered whether there had
been an unconscious motive in his action. Being
interested in the psychoanalytic method, he
asked me to investigate the matter.

“The first memory that occurred to him was
the fact that when a medical student he had been
struck by the habit his hospital interne had of
always carrying in his hand a wooden stethoscope
on his ward visits, although he never used it.
He greatly admired this interne, and was much
attached to him. Later on, when he himself
became an interne he contracted the same habit,
and would feel very uncomfortable if by mistake
he left the room without having the instrument
to swing in his hand. The aimlessness of the
habit was shown, not only by the fact that the
only stethoscope he ever used was a binaural
one, which he carried in his pocket, but also
in that it was continued when he was a sur-
 

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gical interne and never needed any stethoscope
at all.

“From this it was evident that the idea of
the instrument in question had in some way or
other become invested with a greater psychic
significance than normally belongs to it—in other
words, that to the subject it stood for more than
it does for other people. The idea must have
got unconsciously associated with some other one,
which it symbolized, and from which it derived
its additional fulness of meaning. I will forestall
the rest of the analysis by saying what this
secondary idea was—namely, a phallic one; the
way in which this curious association had been
formed will presently be related. The discom-
fort he experienced in hospital on missing the
instrument, and the relief and assurance the
presence of it gave him, was related to what is
known as a ‘castration-
complex’—namely, a
childhood fear, often continued in a disguised
form into adult life, lest a private part of his
body should be taken away from him, just as
playthings so often were. The fear was due to
paternal threats that it would be cut off if he
were not a good boy, particularly in a certain
direction. This is a very common complex, and
accounts for a great deal of general nervousness
and lack of confidence in later years.

“Then came a number of childhood memories
relating to his family doctor. He had been

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strongly attached to this doctor as a child, and
during the analysis long-
buried memories were
recovered of a double phantasy he had in his
fourth year concerning the birth of a younger
sister—namely, that she was the child (1) of
himself and his mother, the father being relegated
to the background, and (2) of the doctor and
himself; in this he thus played both a masculine
and feminine part.¹⁾ At the time, when his
curiosity was being aroused by the event, he
could not help noticing the prominent share
taken by the doctor in the proceedings, and the
subordinate position occupied by the father : the
significance of this for his later life will presently
be pointed out.

“The stethoscope association was formed
through many connections. In the first place,
the physical appearance of the instrument—a
straight, rigid, hollow tube, having a small
bulbous summit at one extremity and a broad
base at the other—and the fact of its being the
essential part of the medical paraphernalia, the
instrument with which the doctor performed his
magical and interesting feats, were matters that
attracted his boyish attention. He had had his
chest repeatedly examined by the doctor at the
age of six, and distinctly recollected the volup-
tuary

¹⁾Psychoanalytic research, with the penetration of infantile
amnesia, has shown that this apparent precocity is a less
abnormal occurrence than was previously supposed.

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Symptomatic and Chance Actions

tuous sensation of feeling the latter’s head near
him pressing the wooden stethoscope into his
chest, and of the rhythmic to-and-fro respiratory
movement. He had been struck by the doctor’s
habit of carrying his stethoscope inside his hat ;
he found it interesting that the doctor should
carry his chief instrument concealed about his
person, always handy when he went to see
patients, and that he only had to take off his
hat (i.e., a part of his clothing) and ‘pull it out.’
At the age of eight he was impressed by being
told by an older boy that it was the doctor’s
custom to get into bed with his women patients.
It is certain that the doctor, who was young and
handsome, was extremely popular among the
women of the neighbourhood, including the
subject’s own mother. The doctor and his
‘instrument’ were therefore the objects of great
interest throughout his boyhood.

“It is probable that, as in many other cases,
unconscious identification with the family doctor
had been a main motive in determining the
subject’s choice of profession. It was here
doubly conditioned (1) by the superiority of the
doctor on certain interesting occasions to the
father, of whom the subject was very jealous,
and (2) by the doctor’s knowledge of forbidden
topics ¹⁾ and his opportunity for illicit indulgence.

¹⁾The term “medical questions” is a common periphrasis
for “sexual questions.”

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The subject admitted that he had on several
occasions experienced erotic temptations in
regard to his women patients; he had twice
fallen in love with one, and finally had
married one.

“The next memory was of a dream, plainly
of a homosexual-masochistic nature ; in it a
man, who proved to be a replacement figure
of the family doctor, attacked the subject with
a ‘sword.’ The idea of a sword, as is so fre-
quently the case in dreams, represented the same
idea that was mentioned above to be associated
with that of a wooden stethoscope. The thought
of a sword reminded the subject of the passage
in the Nibelung Saga, where Sigurd sleeps with
his naked sword (Gram) between him and
Brunhilda, an incident that had always greatly
struck his imagination.

“The meaning of the symptomatic act now
at last became clear. The subject had placed
his wooden stethoscope between him and his
patients, just as Sigurd had placed his sword
(an equivalent symbol) between him and the
maiden he was not to touch. The act was
a compromise-formation ; it served both to
gratify in his imagination the repressed wish
to enter into nearer relations with an attractive
patient (interposition of phallus), and at the same
time to remind him that this wish was not to
become a reality (interposition of sword). It

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Symptomatic and Chance Actions

was, so to speak, a charm against yielding to
temptation.

“I might add that the following passage
from Lord Lytton’s Richelieu made a great
impression on the boy:—

‘Beneath the rule of men entirely great
The pen is mightier than the sword,’¹⁾

and that he became a prolific writer and uses an
unusually large fountain-pen. When I asked
him what need he had of this pen, he replied in
a characteristic manner, ‘I have so much to
express.’

“This analysis again reminds us of the pro-
found views that are afforded us in the psychic
life through the ‘harmless’ and ‘senseless’
actions, and how early in life the tendency to
symbolization develops.”

I can also relate an experience from my
psychotherapeutic practice in which the hand,
playing with a mass of bread-crumbs, gave
evidence of an eloquent declaration. My patient
was a boy not yet thirteen years of age, who
had been very hysterical for two years. I finally
took him for psychoanalytic treatment, after a
lengthy stay at a hydrotherapeutic institution had
proved futile. My supposition was that he must
have had sexual experiences, and that, corre-
sponding to his age, he had been troubled by

¹⁾ Cf. Oldham’s “I wear my pen as others do their sword.”

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sexual questions; but I was cautious about
helping him with explanations as I wished to
test further my assumption. I was therefore
curious as to the manner in which the desired
material would evince itself in him.

One day it struck me that he was rolling
something between the fingers of his right hand;
he would thrust it into his pocket and there con-
tinue playing with it, then would draw it out
again, and so on. I did not ask what he had
in his hand; but as he suddenly opened his
hand he showed it to me. It was bread-crumbs
kneaded into a mass. At the next session he
again brought along a mass, and in the course
of our conversation, although his eyes were
closed, modelled a figure with an incredible
rapidity which excited my interest. Without
doubt it was a manikin like the crudest pre-
historic idols, with a head, two arms, two legs,
and an appendage between the legs which he
drew out to a long point.

This was scarcely completed when he kneaded
the manikin together again: later he allowed
it to remain, but modelled an identical appendage
on the flat of the back and on other parts in
order to veil the meaning of the first. I wished
to show him that I had understood him, but at
the same time I wanted to deprive him of the
evasion that he had thought of nothing while
actively forming these figures. With this in-

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Symptomatic and Chance Actions

tention I suddenly asked him whether he remem-
bered the story of the Roman king who gave
his son’s envoy a pantomimic answer in his
garden.

The boy did not wish to recall what he must
have learned so much more recently than I.
He asked if that was the story of the slave on
whose bald skull the answer was written. I
told him, “No, that belonged to Greek history,”
and related the following: “King Tarquinius
Superbus had induced his son Sextus to steal
into a Latin city. The son, who had later
obtained a foothold in the city, sent a messenger
to the king asking what steps he should take
next. The king gave no answer, but went into
his garden, had the question repeated there, and
silently struck off the heads of the largest and
most beautiful poppies. All that the messenger
could do was to report this to Sextus, who
understood his father, and caused the most dis-
tinguished citizens of the city to be removed
by assassination.”

While I was speaking the boy stopped knead-
ing, and as I was relating what the king did
in his garden, I noticed that at the words
“silently struck” he tore off the head of the
manikin with a movement as quick as lightning.
He therefore understood me, and showed that he
was also understood by me. Now I could ques-
tion him directly, and gave him the information

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that he desired, and in a short time the neurosis
came to an end.

The symptomatic actions which we observe
in inexhaustible abundance in healthy as well
as in nervous people are worthy of our interest
for more than one reason. To the physician they
often serve as valuable indications for orienting
himself in new or unfamiliar conditions; to the
keen observer they often betray everything,
occasionally even more than he cares to know.
He who is familiar with its application some-
times feels like King Solomon, who, according
to the Oriental legend, understood the language
of animals.

One day I was to examine a strange young
man at his mother’s home. As he came towards
me I was attracted by a large stain on his
trousers, which by its peculiar stiff edges I
recognized as one produced by albumen. After
a moment’s embarrassment the young man
excused this stain by remarking that he was
hoarse and therefore drank a raw egg, and that
some of the slippery white of the egg had
probably fallen on his clothes. To confirm his
statements he showed the eggshell which could
still be seen on a small plate in the room. The
suspicious spot was thus explained in this
harmless way; but as his mother left us alone
I thanked him for having so greatly facilitated
the diagnosis for me, and without further pro-
 

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Symptomatic and Chance Actions

cedure I took as the topic of our discussion his
confession that he was suffering from the effects
of masturbation.

Another time I called on a woman as rich as
she was miserly and foolish, who was in the
habit of giving the physician the task of working
his way through a heap of her complaints before
he could reach the simple cause of her condition.
As I entered she was sitting at a small table
engaged in arranging silver dollars in little piles :
as she rose she tumbled some of the pieces of
money to the floor. I helped her pick them up,
but interrupted the recitation of her misery by
remarking : “Has your good son-
law been spending so much of your money again?” She
bitterly denied this, only to relate a few moments
later the lamentable story of the aggravation
caused by her son-in-law’s extravagances. And
she has not sent for me since. I cannot main-
tain that one always makes friends of those to
whom he tells the meaning of their symptomatic
actions.

He who observes his fellow-men while at table
will be able to verify in them the nicest and most
instructive symptomatic actions.

Dr. Hans Sachs relates the following :—
“I happened to be present when an elderly
couple related to me partook of their supper.
The lady had stomach trouble and was forced
to follow a strict diet. A roast was put before

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the husband, and he requested his wife, who was
not allowed to partake of this food, to give him
the mustard. The wife opened the closet and
took out the small bottle of stomach drops, and
placed it on the table before her husband.
Between the barrel-
shaped mustard-glass and the
small drop-
bottle there was naturally no similarity
through which the mishandling could be ex-
plained; yet the wife only noticed the mistake
after her husband laughingly called her atten-
tion to it. The sense of this symptomatic action
needs no explanation.”

For an excellent example of this kind which
was very skilfully utilized by the observer, I am
indebted to Dr. Bernh. Dattner (Vienna) :—

“ I dined in a restaurant with my colleague
H., a doctor of philosophy. He spoke about
the injustice done to probationary students, and
added that even before he finished his studies
he was placed as secretary to the ambassador,
or rather the extraordinary plenipoten-
tiary
Minister to Chili. ‘But,’ he added, ‘the minister
was afterwards transferred, and I did not make
any effort to meet the newly appointed.’ While
uttering the last sentence he was lifting a piece
of pie to his mouth, but he let it drop as if out
of awkwardness. I immediately grasped the
hidden sense of this symptomatic action, and
remarked to my colleague, who was unacquaint-
ed
with psychoanalysis, ‘You really allowed a very

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Symptomatic and Chance Actions

choice morsel to slip from you.’ He did not
realize, however, that my words could equally
refer to his symptomatic action, and he repeated
the same words I uttered with a peculiarly agree-
able and surprising vividness, as if I had actually
taken the words from his mouth: ‘It was really
a very choice morsel that I allowed to get away
from me.’ He then followed this remark
with a detailed description of his clumsiness,
which has cost him this very remunerative
position.

“The sense of this symbolic action becomes
clearer if we remember that my colleague had
scruples about telling me, almost a perfect
stranger, concerning his precarious material
situation, and his repressed thought took on the
mask of symptomatic action which expressed
symbolically what was meant to be concealed,
and the speaker thus got relief from his
unconscious.”

That the taking away or taking along things
without any apparent intention may prove to
be senseful may be shown by the following
examples.

1. Dr. B. Dattner relates : “An acquaintance
paid the first after-
marriage visit to a highly
regarded lady friend of his youth. He told me
of this visit and expressed his surprise at the
fact that he failed in his resolution to visit with
her only a short time, and then reported to me

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Psychopathology of Everyday Life

a rather strange faulty act which happened to
him there.

“The husband of this friend, who took part
in the conversation, was looking for a box of
matches which he was sure was on the table when
he came there. My acquaintance, too, looked
through his pockets to ascertain whether he had
not put it in his pocket, but without avail. Some
time later he actually found it in his pocket, and
was struck by the fact that there was only one
match in the box.

“A dream a few days later showing the box
symbolism in reference to the friend of his youth
confirmed my explanation. With the sympto-
matic action my acquaintance meant to announce
his priority-
right and the exclusiveness of his
possession (it contained only one match).”

Dr. Hans Sachs relates the following: “Our
cook is very fond of a certain kind of pie.
There is no possible doubt about this, as it is
the only kind of pastry which she always pre-
pares well. One Sunday she brought this pie
to the table, took it off the pie-
plate, and pro-
ceeded to remove the dishes used in the former
course, but on the top of this pile she placed
the pie, and disappeared with it into the kitchen.
We first thought that she had something to
improve on the pie, but as she failed to appear
my wife rang the bell and asked, ‘Betty, what
happened to the pie?’ to which the girl answered,

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Symptomatic and Chance Actions

without comprehending the question, ‘How is
that?’ We had to call her attention to the fact
that she carried the pie back to the kitchen. She
had put it on the pile of dishes, taken it out,
and put it away ‘without noticing it.’

“The next day, when we were about to
consume the rest of the pie, my wife noticed
that there was as much of it as we had left the
day before—that is, the girl had disdained to eat
the portion of her favourite dish which was rightly
hers. Questioned why she did not eat the pie,
she answered, somewhat embarrassed, that she
did not care for it.

“The infantile attitude is distinctly noticeable
on both occasions—first the childish insatiable
ness in refusing to share with anybody the
object of her wishes, then the reaction of
spite which is just as childish: ‘If you grudge
it to me, keep it for yourself, I want nothing
of it.’ ”

Chance or symptomatic actions occurring in
affairs of married life have often a most serious
significance, and could lead those who do not
concern themselves with the psychology of the
unconscious to a belief in omens. It is not an
auspicious beginning if a young woman loses
her wedding-
ring on her wedding-tour, even if
it were only mislaid and soon found.

I know a woman, now divorced, who in the
management of her business affairs frequently

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Psychopathology of Everyday Life

signed her maiden name many years before she
actually resumed it.

Once I was the guest of a newly married
couple and heard the young woman laughingly
relate her latest experience, how, on the day
succeeding her return from the wedding tour she
had sought out her single sister in order to go
shopping with her as in former times, while her
husband was attending business. Suddenly she
noticed a man on the opposite side of the street;
nudging her sister she said, “Why, that is surely
Mr. L.” She forgot that for some weeks this
man had been her husband. I was chilled at
this tale, but I did not dare draw any inferences.
The little story came back to me only several
years later, after this marriage had ended most
unhappily.

The following observation, which could as well
have found a place among the examples of for-
getting, was taken from a noteworthy work
published in French by A. Maeder.¹

“Une dame nous racontait récemment qu’elle
avait oublié d’essayer sa robe de noce et s’en
souvint la veille du mariage, à huit heur du
soir, la couturière désespérait de voir sa cliente.
Ce détail suffit à montrer que la fiancée ne se
sentait pas très hereuse de porter une robe
d’épouse, elle cherchait à oublier cette repré-
 

¹Maeder, “Contribution a la psychologie de la vie quoti-
dienne,” Arch. des psychologie, T. vi, 1906.

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Symptomatic and Chance Actions

sentation pénible. Elle est aujourd’hui …
divorcée.”

A friend who has learned to observe signs
related to me that the great actress Eleanora
Duse introduces a symptomatic action into one
of her rôles which shows very nicely from what
depth she draws her acting. It is a drama
dealing with adultery; she has just been discuss-
ing with her husband and now stands solilo-
quizing before the seducer makes his appearance.
During this short interval she plays with her
wedding-
ring, she pulls it off, replaces it, and
finally takes it off again. She is now ready
for the other.

I know of an elderly man who married a
young girl, and instead of starting at once on
his wedding tour he decided to spend the night
in a hotel. Scarcely had they reached the hotel,
when he noticed with fright that he was without
his wallet, in which he had the entire sum of
money for the wedding tour; he must have mis-
laid or lost it. He was still able to reach his
servant by telephone; the latter found the
missing article in the coat discarded for the
travelling clothes and brought it to the hotel
to the waiting bridegroom, who had thus entered
upon his marriage without means.

It is consoling to think that the “losing of
objects” by people is merely an unsuspected
extension of a symptomatic action, and is thus

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welcome at least to the secret intention of the
loser. Often it is only an expression of slight
appreciation of the lost article, a secret dislike
for the same, or perhaps for the person from
whom it came, or the desire to lose this object
was transferred to it from other and more im-
portant objects through symbolic association.
The loss of valuable articles serves as an expres-
sion of diverse feelings; it may either sym-
bolically represent a repressed thought—that is,
it may bring back a memory which one would
rather not hear—or it may represent a sacrifice
to the obscure forces of fate, the worship of
which is not yet entirely extinct even with us.¹

¹Here is another small collection of various symptomatic
actions in normal and neurotic persons. An elderly colleague
who does not like to lose at cards had to pay one evening
a large sum of money in consequence of his losses; he did
this without complaint, but with a peculiar constrained
temper. After his departure it was discovered that he had
left at this place practically everything he had with him,
spectacles, cigar-case, and handkerchief. That would be
readily translated into the words: “You robbers, you have
nicely plundered me.” A man who suffers from occasional
sexual impotence, which has its origin in the intimacy of his
infantile relations to his mother, relates that he is in the
habit of embellishing pamphlets and notes with an S, the
initial of his mother’s name. He cannot bear the idea of
having letters from home come in contact with other
unsanctified correspondence, and therefore finds it necessary
to keep the former separate. A young woman suddenly
flings open the door of the consulting-room while her
predecessor is still present. She excused herself on the
ground of “thoughtlessness”; it soon came to light that she

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The following examples will illustrate these
statements concerning the losing of objects :—

Dr. B. Dattner states : “A colleague related
to me that he lost his steel pencil which he had
for over two years, and which, on account
of its superior quality, was highly prized by
him. Analysis elicited the following facts : The
day before he had received a very disagreeable

demonstrated her curiosity which caused her at an earlier
time to intrude into the bedroom of her parents. Girls who
are proud of their beautiful hair know so well how to mani-
pulate combs and hairpins, that in the midst of conversation
their hair becomes loosened. During the treatment (in a
reclining position) some men scatter change from their
pockets and thus pay for the hour of treatment ; the amount
scattered is in proportion to their estimation of the work.
Whoever forgets articles in the doctor’s office, such as eye-
glasses, gloves, handbags, generally indicates that he cannot
tear himself away and is anxious to return soon. Ernest
Jones says : “ One can almost measure the success with
which a physician is practising psychotherapy, for instance,
by the size of the collection of umbrellas, handkerchiefs,
purses, and so on, that he could make in a month. The
slightest habits and acts performed with a minimum of
attention, such as the winding of a clock before retiring
to sleep, the putting out of lights before leaving the room,
and similar actions, are occasionally subject to disturbances
which clearly demonstrate the influence of the unconscious
complex, and what is thought to be the strongest “ habits.”

In the journal Cœnobium, Maeder relates about a hospital
physician who, on account of an important matter, desired
to get to the city that evening, although he was on duty and
had no right to leave the hospital. On his return he noticed
to his surprise that there was a light in his room. On leaving
the room he had forgotten to put it out, something that had

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letter from his brother-in-law, the concluding
sentence of which read: ‘At present I have
neither the desire nor the time to assist you in
your carelessness and laziness.’ The effect con-
nected with this letter was so powerful that the
next day he promptly sacrificed the pencil which
was a present from this brother-in-law in order
not to be burdened with his favours.”

never happened before. But he soon grasped the motive of
this forgetting. The hospital superintendent who lived in the
same house must have concluded from the light in the room
that he was at home. A man overburdened with worries
and subject to occasional depressions assured me that he
regularly forgot to wind his watch on those evenings when
life seemed too hard and unfriendly. In this omission to
wind his watch he symbolically expressed that it was a
matter of indifference to him whether he lived to see the
next day. Another man who was personally unknown to
me wrote: “Having been struck by a terrible misfortune,
life appeared so harsh and unsympathetic, that I imagined
that I had not sufficient strength to live to see the next day.
I then noticed that almost every day I forgot to wind my
watch, something that I never omitted before. I had been
in the habit of doing it regularly before retiring in an almost
mechanical and unconscious manner. It was only very
seldom that I thought of it, and that happened when I had
something important for the next day which held my interest.
“Should this be considered a symptomatic action ? I really
cannot explain it.” Whoever will take the trouble, like
Jung (The Psychology of Dementia Præcox, translated by
Peterson and Brill), or Maeder (“Une voie nouvelle en Psy-
chologie—Freud et son ecole,” Cœnobium, Lugano, 1906), to
pay attention to melodies which one hums to himself aimlessly
and unconsciously, will regularly discover the relation of the
melody’s text to a theme which occupies the person at that
time.

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Symptomatic and Chance Actions

Brill reports the following example: “A
doctor took exception to the following statement
in my book, ‘We never lose what we really
want’ (Psychanalysis, its Theories and Practical
Application, p. 214). His wife, who is very
interested in psychologic subjects, read with
him the chapter on “Psychopathology of Every
day Life”; they were both very much impressed
with the novelty of the ideas, and so on, and
were very willing to accept most of the state-
ments. He could not, however, agree with the
above-given statement because, as he said to
his wife, ‘I surely did not wish to lose my knife.’
He referred to a valuable knife given to him by
his wife, which he highly prized, the loss of
which caused him much pain.

“It did not take his wife very long to dis-
cover the solution for this loss in a manner to
convince them both of the accuracy of my state-
ment. When she presented him with this knife he
was a bit loath to accept it. Although he con-
sidered himself quite emancipated, he nevert-
heless entertained some superstition about giving
or accepting a knife as a gift, because it is said
that a knife cuts friendship. He even remarked
this to his wife, who only laughed at his super-
stition. He had the knife for years before it
disappeared.

“Analysis brought out the fact that the dis-
appearance of the knife was directly connected

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with a period when there were violent quarrels
between himself and his wife, which threatened
to end in separation. They lived happily
together until his step-
daughter (it was his
second marriage) came to live with them. His
daughter was the cause of many misunderstand-
ings, and it was at the height of these quarrels
that he lost the knife.

“The unconscious activity is very nicely shown
in this symptomatic action. In spite of his
apparent freedom from superstition, he still un-
consciously believed that a donated knife may
cut friendship between the persons concerned.
The losing of it was simply an unconscious
defence against losing his wife, and by sacrific-
ing the knife he made the superstitious ban
impotent.”

In a lengthy discussion and with the aid of
dream analysis ¹⁾ Otto Rank made clear the
sacrificial tendency with its deep-
reaching
motivation. It must be said that just such
symptomatic actions often give us access to the
understanding of the intimate psychic life of
the person.

Of the many isolated chance-
actions, I will
relate one example which showed a deeper
meaning even without analysis. This example
clearly explains the conditions under which such

¹⁾“Das Verlieren als Symptom-
handlung,” Zentralb. f.
Psychoanalyse, i. 10–11.

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Symptomatic and Chance Actions

symptoms may be produced most casually, and
also shows that an observation of practical im-
portance may be attached to it. During a
summer tour it happened that I had to wait
several days at a certain place for the arrival
of my travelling companions. In the mean-
time I made the acquaintance of a young man,
who also seemed lonely and was quite willing
to join me. As we lived at the same hotel it
was quite natural that we should take all our
meals and our walks together.

On the afternoon of the third day he suddenly
informed me that he expected his wife to arrive
on that evening’s express train. My psycho-
logic interest was now aroused, as it had
already struck me that morning that my com-
panion rejected my proposal to make a long
excursion, and in our short walk he objected to
a certain path as too steep and dangerous.
During our afternoon walk he suddenly thought
that I must be hungry and insisted that I should
not delay my evening meal on his account, that
he would not sup before his wife’s arrival. I
understood the hint and seated myself at the
table while he went to the station.

The next morning we met in the foyer of
the hotel. He presented me to his wife, and
added, “Of course, you will breakfast with us?”
I had to attend first to a small matter in the
next street, but assured him that I would return

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shortly. Later, as I entered the breakfast-room,
I noticed that the couple were at a small table
near the window, both seated on the same side
of it. On the opposite side there was only one
chair, which was covered, however, with a man’s
large and heavy coat. I understood well the
meaning of this unintentional, none the less
expressive, disposition of the coat. It meant
this: “There is no room for you here, you
are superfluous now.”

The man did not notice that I remained
standing before the table, being unable to take
the seat, but his wife noticed it, and quickly
nudged her husband and whispered: “Why, you
have covered the gentleman’s place with your
coat.”

These as well as other similar experiences have
caused me to think that the actions executed
unintentionally must inevitably become the source
of misunderstanding in human relations. The
perpetrator of the act, who is unaware of any
associated intention, takes no account of it, and
does not hold himself responsible for it. On
the other hand, the second party, having regularly
utilized even such acts as those of his partner to
draw conclusions as to their purpose and mean-
ing, recognizes more of the stranger’s psychic
processes than the latter is ready either to admit
or believe that he has imparted. He becomes
indignant when these conclusions drawn from

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his symptomatic actions are held up to him;
he declares them baseless because he does not
see any conscious intention in their execution,
and complains of being misunderstood by the
other. Close examination shows that such mis-
understandings are based on the fact that the
person is too fine an observer and understands
too much. The more “nervous” two persons
are the more readily will they give each other
cause for disputes, which are based on the
fact that one as definitely denies about his own
person what he is sure to accept about the
other.

And this is, indeed, the punishment for the
inner dishonesty to which people grant expres-
sion under the guise of “forgetting,” of errone-
ous actions and accidental emotions, a feeling
which they would do better to confess to them-
selves and others when they can no longer control
it. As a matter of fact it can be generally
affirmed that every one is continually practising
psychoanalysis on his neighbours, and conse-
quently learns to know them better than each
individual knows himself. The road following
the admonition γνῶθι σεαυτόν leads through the
study of one’s own apparently casual commissions
and omissions.