ERRONEOUSLY CARRIED-OUT

ACTIONS

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VIII

ERRONEOUSLY CARRIED-OUT ACTIONS

I SHALL give another passage from the above-
mentioned work of Meringer and Mayer (p. 98):
“Lapses in speech do not stand entirely alone.
They resemble the errors which often occur in
our other activities and are quite foolishly termed
‘forgetfulness.’ ”

I am therefore in no way the first to presume
that there is a sense and purpose behind the
slight functional disturbances of the daily life
of healthy people.¹⁾

If the lapse in speech, which is without doubt
a motor function, admits of such a conception,
it is quite natural to transfer to the lapses of our
other motor functions the same expectation. I
have here formed two groups of cases; all these
cases in which the faulty effect seems to be the
essential element—that is, the deviation from the
intention—I denote as erroneously carried-out
actions (Vergreifen); the others, in which the
entire action appears rather inexpedi-
ent, I call

¹⁾A second publication of Meringer has later shown me
how very unjust I was to this author when I attributed to
him so much understanding.

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“symptomatic and chance actions.” But no
distinct line of demarcation can be formed;
indeed, we are forced to conclude that all
divisions used in this treatise are of only
descriptive significance and contradict the inner
unity of the sphere of manifestation.

The psychologic understanding of erroneous
actions apparently gains little in clearness when
we place it under the head of “ataxia,” and
especially under “cortical ataxia.” Let us rather
try to trace the individual examples to their
proper determinants. To do this I shall again
resort to personal observations, the opportunities
for which I could not very frequently find in
myself.

(a) In former years, when I made more calls
at the homes of patients than I do at present,
it often happened, when I stood before a door
where I should have knocked or rung the bell,
that I would pull the key of my own house from
my pocket, only to replace it, quite abashed.
When I investigated in what patients’ homes
this occurred, I had to admit that the faulty
action—taking out my key instead of ringing the
bell—signified paying a certain tribute to the
house where the error occurred. It was equiva-
lent to the thought “Here I feel at home,” as
it happened only where I possessed the patient’s
regard. (Naturally, I never rang my own
door-
bell.)

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Erroneously Carried-out Actions

The faulty action was therefore a symbolic
representation of a definite thought which was
not accepted consciously as serious; for in
reality the neurologist is well aware that the
patient seeks him only so long as he expects to
be benefited by him, and that his own exces-
sively warm interest for his patient is evinced
only as a means of psychic treatment.

An almost identical repetition of my experi-
ence is described by A. Maeder (“Contrib. à
la psychopathologie de la vie quotidienne,” Arch.
de Psychol., vi., 1906) : “ Il est arrivé a chacun
de sortir son trousseau, en arrivant à la porte d’un
ami particulièrement cher, de se surprendre pour
ainsi dire, en train d’ouvrir avec sa clé comme
chez soi. C’est un retard, puisqu’il faut sonner
malgré tout, mais c’est une preuve qu’on se sent
—ou qu’on voudrait se sentir—comme chez soi,
auprès de cet ami.”

Jones speaks as follows about the use of
keys : ¹ “ The use of keys is a fertile source of
occurrences of this kind, of which two examples
may be given. If I am disturbed in the midst
of some engrossing work at home by having
to go to the hospital to carry out some routine
work, I am very ‘apt to find myself trying to
open the door of my laboratory there with the
key of my desk at home, although the two keys
are quite unlike each other. The mistake uncon-

¹ Jones, loc. cit., p. 79.

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Psychopathology of Everyday Life

sciously demonstrates where I would rather be
at the moment.

“Some years ago I was acting in a subordi-
nate position at a certain institution, the front
door of which was kept locked, so that it was
necessary to ring for admission. On several
occasions I found myself making serious attempts
to open the door with my house key. Each
one of the permanent visiting staff, of which
I aspired to be a member, was provided with
a key to avoid the trouble of having to wait
at the door. My mistake thus expressed the
desire to be on a similar footing and to be quite
‘at home’ there.”

A similar experience is reported by Dr. Hans
Sachs of Vienna: “I always carry two keys with
me, one for the door of my office and one for my
residence. They are not by any means easily
interchanged, as the office key is at least three
times as big as my house key. Besides, I carry
the first in my trouser pocket and the other in
my vest pocket. Yet it often happened that I
noticed on reaching the door that while ascend-
ing the stairs I had taken out the wrong key.
I decided to undertake a statistical examina-
tion ; as I was daily in about the same emotional
state when I stood before both doors, I thought
that the interchanging of the two keys must show
a regular tendency, if they were differently deter-
mined psychically. Observation of later occur-

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Erroneously Carried-out Actions

rences showed that I regularly took out my house
key before the office door. Only on one occasion
was this reversed: I came home tired, knowing
that I would find there a guest. I made an
attempt to unlock the door with the, naturally
too big, office key.”

(b) At a certain time twice a day for six
years I was accustomed to wait for admission
before a door in the second story of the same
house, and during this long period of time it
happened twice (within a short interval) that
I climbed a story higher. On the first of these
occasions I was in an ambitious day-dream,
which allowed me to “mount always higher and
higher.” In fact, at that time I heard the door
in question open as I put my foot on the first
step of the third flight. On the other occasion I
again went too far “engrossed in thought.” As
soon as I became aware of it, I turned back and
sought to snatch the dominating fantasy; I
found that I was irritated over a criticism of
my works, in which the reproach was made that
I “always went too far,” which I replaced by
the less respectful expression “climbed too
high.”

(c) For many years a reflex hammer and a
tuning-fork lay side by side on my desk. One
day I hurried off at the close of my office hours,
as I wished to catch a certain train, and, despite
broad daylight, put the tuning-fork in my coat

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Psychopathology of Everyday Life

pocket in place of the reflex hammer. My
attention was called to the mistake through the
weight of the object drawing down my pocket.
Any one unaccustomed to reflect on such slight
occurrences would without hesitation explain the
faulty action by the hurry of the moment, and
excuse it.

In spite of that, I preferred to ask
myself why I took the tuning-
fork instead of the
hammer. The haste could just as well have been
a motive for carrying out the action properly in
order not to waste time over the correction.

“Who last grasped the tuning-
fork?” was the
question which immediately flashed through my
mind. It happened that only a few days ago an
idiotic child, whose attention to sensory impres-
sions I was testing, had been so fascinated by
the tuning-
fork that I found it difficult to tear
it away from him. Could it mean, therefore,
that I was an idiot? To be sure, so it would
seem, as the next thought which associated
itself with the hammer was chamer (Hebrew
for “ass”).

But what was the meaning of this abusive
language? We must here inquire into the situa-
tion. I hurried to a consultation at a place on
the Western railroad to see a patient who,
according to the anamnesis which I received by
letter, had fallen from a balcony some months
before, and since then had been unable to walk.
The physician who invited me wrote that he was

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Erroneously Carried-out Actions

still unable to say whether he was dealing with
a spinal injury or traumatic neurosis–hysteria.
That was what I was to decide. This could
therefore be a reminder to be particularly careful
in this delicate differential diagnosis. As it is,
my colleagues think that hysteria is diagnosed
far too carelessly where more serious matters
are concerned. But the abuse is not yet justi-
fied. Yes, the next association was that the
small railroad station is the same place in which,
some years previous, I saw a young man who,
after a certain emotional experience, could not
walk properly. At that time I diagnosed his
malady as hysteria, and later put him under
psychic treatment; but it afterward turned out
that my diagnosis was neither incorrect nor
correct. A large number of the patient’s
symptoms were hysterical, and they promptly
disappeared in the course of treatment. But
back of these there was a visible remnant that
could not be reached by therapy, and could be
referred only to a multiple sclerosis. Those who
saw the patient after me had no difficulty in
recognizing the organic affection. I could
scarcely have acted or judged differently, still
the impression was that of a serious mistake;
the promise of a cure which I had given him
could naturally not be kept.

The mistake in grasping the tuning--fork
instead of the hammer could therefore be trans--

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Psychopathology of Everyday Life

lated into the following words: “You fool, you
ass, get yourself together this time, and be careful
not to diagnose again a case of hysteria where
there is an incurable disease, as you did in this
place years ago in the case of the poor man!”
And fortunately for this little analysis, even if
unfortunately for my mood, this same man, now
having a very spastic gait, had been to my office
a few days before, one day after the examination
of the idiotic child.

We observe that this time it is the voice of
self-
criticism which makes itself perceptible
through the mistake in grasping. The errone-
ously carried-out action is specially suited to
express self-reproach. The present mistake
attempts to represent the mistake which was
committed elsewhere.

(d) It is quite obvious that grasping the wrong
thing may also serve a whole series of other
obscure purposes. Here is a first example: It
is very seldom that I break anything. I am
not particularly dexterous, but by virtue of the
anatomic integrity of my nervous and muscular
apparatus there are apparently no grounds in me
for such awkward movements with undesirable
results. I can recall no object in my home
the counterpart of which I have ever broken.
Owing to the narrowness of my study it has
often been necessary for me to work in the most
uncomfortable position among my numerous

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Erroneously Carried-out Actions

antique clay and stone objects, of which I have
a small collection. So much is this true that
onlookers have expressed fear lest I topple down
something and shatter it. But it never happened.
Then why did I brush to the floor the cover of
my simple inkwell so that it broke into pieces?

My inkstand is made of a flat piece of marble
which is hollowed out for the reception of the
glass inkwell; the inkwell has a marble cover
with a knob of the same stone. A circle of
bronze statuettes with small terra-
cotta figures is set behind this inkstand. I seated myself at
the desk to write, I made a remarkably awkward
outward movement with the hand holding the
pen-
holder, and so swept the cover of the ink-
stand, which already lay on the desk, to the
floor.

It is not difficult to find the explanation.
Some hours before my sister had been in the
room to look at some of my new acquisitions.
She found them very pretty, and then remarked:
“Now the desk really looks very well, only the
inkstand does not match. You must get a
prettier one.” I accompanied my sister out and
did not return for several hours. But then,
as it seems, I performed the execution of the
condemned inkstand.

Did I perhaps conclude from my sister’s words
that she intended to present me with a prettier
inkstand on the next festive occasion, and did

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Psychopathology of Everyday Life

I shatter the unsightly old one in order to force
her to carry out her signified intention? If that
be so, then my swinging motion was only
apparently awkward; in reality it was most
skilful and designed, as it understood how to
avoid all the valuable objects located near it.

I actually believe that we must accept this
explanation for a whole series of seemingly
accidental awkward movements. It is true that
on the surface these seem to show something
violent and irregular, similar to spastic-ataxic
movements, but on examination they seem to
be dominated by some intention, and they accom-
plish their aim with a certainty that cannot
be generally credited to conscious arbitrary
motions. In both characteristics, the force as
well as the sure aim, they show besides a re-
semblance to the motor manifestations of the
hysterical neurosis, and in part also to the motor
accomplishments of somnambulism, which here
as well as there point to the same unfamiliar
modification of the functions of innervation.

In latter years, since I have been collecting
such observations, it has happened several times
that I have shattered and broken objects of some
value, but the examination of these cases con-
vinced that it was never the result of accident
or of my unintentional awkwardness. Thus, one
morning while in my bath-robe and straw slippers
I followed a sudden impulse as I passed a room,

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Erroneously Carried-out Actions

and hurled a slipper from my foot against the
wall so that it brought down a beautiful little
marble Venus from its bracket. As it fell to
pieces I recited quite unmoved the following
verse from Busch:—

“Ach! Die Venus ist perdü—
Klickeradoms!—von Medici!”

This crazy action and my calmness at the
sight of the damage is explained in the then
existing situation. We had a very sick person
in the family, of whose recovery I had per-
sonally despaired. That morning I had been
informed that there was a great improvement;
I know that I had said to myself, “After all she
will live.” My attack of destructive madness
served therefore as the expression of a grateful
feeling toward fate, and afforded me the oppor-
tunity of performing an “act of sacrifice,” just
as if I had vowed, “If she gets well I will give
this or that as a sacrifice.” That I chose the
Venus of Medici as this sacrifice was only gallant
homage to the convalescent. But even to-day
it is still incomprehensible to me that I decided
so quickly, aimed so accurately, and struck no
other object in close proximity.

Another breaking, in which I utilized a pen-
holder falling from my hand, also signified a
sacrifice, but this time it was a pious offering¹⁾

¹⁾ Alas! the Venus of Medici is lost!

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Psychopathology of Everyday Life

to avert some evil. I had once allowed myself
to reproach a true and worthy friend for no
other reason than certain manifestations which
I interpreted from his unconscious activity. He
took it amiss and wrote me a letter in which
he bade me not to treat my friends by psycho-
analysis. I had to admit that he was right and
appeased him with my answer. While writing
this letter I had before me my latest acquisi-
tion—a small, handsome glazed Egyptian figure.
I broke it in the manner mentioned, and then
immediately knew that I had caused this mischief
to avert a greater one. Luckily, both the friend-
ship and the figure could be so cemented that
the break would not be noticed.

A third case of breaking had a less serious
connection; it was only a disguised “execution,”
to use an expression from Th. Vischer’s Auch
Einer, of an object that no longer suited my
taste. For quite a while I had carried a cane
with a silver handle; through no fault of mine
the thin silver plate was once damaged and
poorly repaired. Soon after the cane was re-
turned I mirthfully used the handle to angle for
the leg of one of my children. In that way it
naturally broke, and I got rid of it.

The indifference with which we accept the
resulting damage in all these cases may certainly
be taken as evidence for the existence of an
unconscious purpose in their execution.

189

Erroneously Carried-out Actions

(e) As can sometimes be demonstrated by
analysis, the dropping of objects or the overturn-
ing and breaking of the same are very frequently
utilized as the expression of unconscious streams
of thought, but more often they serve to represent
the superstitious or odd significances connected
therewith in popular sayings. The meanings
attached to the spilling of salt, the overturning
of a wineglass, the sticking of a knife dropped
to the floor, and so on, are well known. I shall
discuss later the right to investigate such super-
stitious interpretations; here I shall simply
observe that the individual awkward acts do not
by any means always have the same meaning,
but, depending on the circumstances, they serve
to represent now this or that purpose.

Recently we passed through a period in my
house during which an unusual number of glass
and china dishes were broken. I myself largely
contributed to this damage. This little endemic
was readily explained by the fact that it pre-
ceded the public betrothal of my eldest daughter.
On such festivities it is customary to break some
dishes and utter at the same time some felicitating
expression. This custom may signify a sacrifice
or express any other symbolic sense.

When servants destroy fragile objects through
dropping them, we certainly do not think
in the first place of a psychologic motive for
it; still, some obscure motives are not improb-
able.

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Psychopathology of Everyday Life

able even here. Nothing lies farther from the
uneducated than the appreciation of art and
works of art. Our servants are dominated by
a foolish hostility against these productions,
especially when the objects, whose worth they
do not realize, become a source of a great deal
of work for them. On the other hand, persons
of the same education and origin employed in
scientific institutions often distinguish themselves
by great dexterity and reliability in the handling
of delicate objects, as soon as they begin to
identify themselves with their masters and con-
sider themselves an essential part of the staff.

I shall here add the report of a young
mechanical engineer, which gives some insight
into the mechanism of damaging things.

“Some time ago I worked with many others
in the laboratory of the High School on a series
of complicated experiments on the subject of
elasticity. It was a work that we undertook of
our own volition, but it turned out that it took
up more of our time than we expected. One day,
while going to the laboratory with F., he com-
plained of losing so much time, especially on
this day, when he had so many other things to
do at home. I could only agree with him, and he
added half jokingly, alluding to an incident of
the previous week: ‘Let us hope that the
machine will refuse to work, so that we can
interrupt the experiment and go home earlier.’

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Erroneously Carried-out Actions

“In arranging the work, it happened that F.
was assigned to the regulation of the pressure
valve, that is, it was his duty to carefully open
the valve and let the fluid under pressure flow
from the accumulator into the cylinder of the
hydraulic press. The leader of the experiment
stood at the manometer and called a loud
‘Stop!’ when the maximum pressure was
reached. At this command F. grasped the
valve and turned it with all his force—to the
left (all valves, without any exception, are closed
to the right). This caused a sudden full pres-
sure in the accumulator of the press, and as
there was no outlet, the connecting pipe burst.
This was quite a trifling accident to the machine,
but enough to force us to stop our work for the
day and go home.”

“It is characteristic, moreover, that some time
later, on discussing this occurrence, my friend
F. could not recall the remark that I positively
remember his having made.”

Similarly, to fall, to make a misstep, or to
slip need not always be interpreted as an entirely
accidental miscarriage of a motor action. The
linguistic double meaning of these expressions
points to diverse hidden fantasies, which may
present themselves through the giving up of
bodily equilibrium. I recall a number of lighter
nervous ailments in women and girls which made
their appearance after falling without injury, and

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Psychopathology of Everyday Life

which were conceived as traumatic hysteria as a
result of the shock of the fall. At that time I
already entertained the impression that these con-
ditions had a different connection, that the fall
was already a preparation of the neurosis, and
an expression of the same unconscious fantasies
of sexual content which may be taken as the
moving forces behind the symptoms. Was not
this very thing meant in the proverb which
says, “When a maiden falls, she falls on her
back?”

We can also add to these mistakes the case
of one who gives a beggar a gold piece in
place of a copper or a silver coin. The solution
of such mishandling is simple: it is an act of
sacrifice designed to mollify fate, to avert evil,
and so on. If we hear a tender mother or aunt
express concern regarding the health of a child,
directly before taking a walk during which she
displays her charity, contrary to her usual habit,
we can no longer doubt the sense of this appar-
ently undesirable accident. In this manner our
faulty acts make possibl¿ the ¿¿¿¿¿¿¿¿ of ¿¿¿
those pious and superstitious customs which
must shun the light of consciousness, because
of the strivings against them of our unbelieving
reason.

(f) That accidental actions are really inten-
tional will find no greater credence in any other
sphere than in sexual activity, where the border

193

Erroneously Carried-out Actions

between the intention and accident hardly seems
discernible. That an apparently clumsy move-
ment may be utilized in a most refined way for
sexual purposes I can verify by a nice example
from my own experience. In a friend’s house
I met a young girl visitor who excited in me a
feeling of fondness which I had long believed
extinct, thus putting me in a jovial, loquacious,
and complaisant mood. At that time I endea-
voured to find out how this came about, as a
year before this same girl made no impression
on me.

As the girl’s uncle, a very old man, entered the
room, we both jumped to our feet to bring him
a chair which stood in the corner. She was
more agile than I and also nearer the object,
so that she was the first to take possession of
the chair. She carried it with its back to her,
holding both hands on the edge of the seat. As
I got there later and did not give up the
claim to carrying the chair, I suddenly stood
directly back of her, and with both my arms
was embracing her from behind, and for a
moment my hands touched her lap. I naturally
solved the situation as quickly as it came about.
Nor did it occur to anybody how dexterously I
had taken advantage of this awkward move-
ment.

Occasionally I have had to admit to myself
that the annoying, awkward stepping aside on

194

Psychopathology of Everyday Life

the street, whereby for some seconds one steps
here and there, yet always in the same direc-
tion as the other person, until finally both stop
facing each other, that this “barring one’s way,”
repeats an ill-mannered, provoking conduct of
earlier times and conceals erotic purposes under
the mask of awkwardness. From my psycho-
analysis of neurotics I know that the so-called
naïveté of young people and children is frequently
only such a mask, employed in order that the
subject may say or do the indecent without
restraint.

W. Stekel has reported similar observations
in regard to himself: “I entered a house and
offered my right hand to the hostess. In a most
remarkable way I thereby loosened the bow
which held together her loose morning-gown. I
was conscious of no dishonourable intent, still
I executed this awkward movement with the
agility of a juggler.”

(g) The effects which result from mistakes
of normal persons are, as a rule, of a most harm-
less nature. Just for this reason it would be
particularly interesting to find out whether mis-
takes of considerable importance, which could
be followed by serious results, as, for example,
those of physicians or druggists, fall within the
range of our point of view.

As I am seldom in a position to deal with
active medical matters, I can only report one

195

Erroneously Carried-out Actions

mistake from my own experience. I treated a
very old woman, whom I visited twice daily for
several years. My medical activities were limited
to two acts, which I performed during my
morning visits: I dropped a few drops of an eye
lotion into her eyes and gave her a hypodermic
injection of morphine. I prepared regularly two
bottles—a blue one, containing the eye lotion,
and a white one, containing the morphine solu-
tion. While performing these duties my thoughts
were mostly occupied with something else, for
they had been repeated so often that the atten-
tion acted as if free. One morning I noticed
that the automaton worked wrong; I had put
the dropper into the white instead of into the blue
bottle, and had dropped into the eyes the
morphine instead of the lotion. I was greatly
frightened, but then calmed myself through the
reflection that a few drops of a two per cent.
solution of morphine would not likely do any
harm even if left in the conjunc-
tival sac. The cause of the fright manifestly belonged
elsewhere.

In attempting to analyse the slight mistake
I first thought of the phrase, “to seize the old
woman by mistake,” which pointed out the short
way to the solution. I had been impressed by
a dream which a young man had told me the
previous evening, the contents of which could
be explained only on the basis of sexual inter-
est.

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Psychopathology of Everyday Life

course with his own mother.¹ The strangeness
of the fact that the Œdipus legend takes no
offence at the age of Queen Jocasta seemed to
me to agree with the assumption that in being
in love with one’s mother we never deal with
the present personality, but with her youthful
memory picture carried over from our childhood.
Such incongruities always show themselves where
one fantasy fluctuating between two periods is
made conscious, and is then bound to one definite
period.

Deep in thoughts of this kind, I came to my
patient of over ninety ; I must have been well
on the way to grasp the universal character of
the Œdipus fable as the correlation of the fate
which the oracle pronounces, for I made a
blunder in reference to or on the old woman.
Here, again, the mistake was harmless ; of the
two possible errors, taking the morphine solution
for the eye, or the eye lotion for the injection,
I chose the one by far the least harmful. The
question still remains open whether in mistakes
in handling things which may cause serious harm
we can assume an unconscious intention as in
the cases here discussed.

¹ The Œdipus dream as I was wont to call it, because it
contains the key to the understanding of the legend of King
Œdipus. In the text of Sophocles the relation of such
a dream is put in the mouth of Jocasta (cf. The Interpretation
of Dreams, pp. 222–4, etc.).

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Erroneously Carried-out Actions

The following case from Brill’s experience
corroborates the assumption that even serious
mistakes are determined by unconscious inten-
tions: “A physician received a telegram inform-
ing him that his aged uncle was very sick. In
spite of important family affairs at home he at
once repaired to that distant town because his
uncle was really his father, who had cared for
him since he was one and a half years old, when
his own father had died. On reaching there he
found his uncle suffering from pneumonia, and,
as the old man was an octogenarian, the doctors
held out no hope for his recovery. ‘It was
simply a question of a day or two,’ was the
local doctor’s verdict. Although a prominent
physician in a big city, he refused to co-operate in
the treatment, as he found that the case was
properly managed by the local doctor, and he
could not suggest anything to improve matters.
“Since death was daily expected, he decided
to remain to the end. He waited a few days,
but the sick man struggled hard, and although
there was no question of any recovery, because
of the many new complications which had arisen,
death seemed to be deferred for a while. One
night before retiring he went into the sick-room
and took his uncle’s pulse. As it was quite
weak, he decided not to wait for the doctor, and
administered a hypodermic injection. The patient
grew rapidly worse and died within a few hours.

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Psychopathology of Everyday Life

There was something strange in the last
symptoms, and on later attempting to replace
the tube of hypodermic tablets into the case, he
found to his consternation that he had taken
out the wrong tube, and instead of a small dose
of digitalis he had given a large dose of hyoscine.

“This case was related to me by the doctor
after he read my paper on the Œdipus Complex.¹
We agreed that this mistake was determined not
only by his impatience to get home to his sick
child, but also by an old resentment and uncon-
scious hostility toward his uncle (father).”

It is known that in the more serious cases of
psychoneuroses one sometimes finds self-mutila-
tions as symptoms of the disease. That the
psychic conflict may end in suicide can never
be excluded in these cases. Thus I know from
experience, which some day I shall support with
convincing examples, that many apparently
accidental injuries happening to such patients
are really self-inflicted. This is brought about
by the fact that there is a constantly lurking
tendency to self-punishment, usually expressing
itself in self-reproach, or contributing to the
formation of a symptom, which skilfully makes
use of an external situation. The required ex-
ternal situation may accidentally present itself

¹New York Medical Journal, September, 1912. Reprinted
in large form as Chapter X of Psychanalysis, etc., Saunders,
Philadelphia.

Erroneously Carried-out Actions

or the punishment tendency may assist it until
the way is open for the desired injurious effect.

Such occurrences are by no means rare even
in cases of moderate severity, and they betray
the portion of unconscious intention through a
series of special features—for example, through
the striking presence of mind which the patients
show in the pretended accidents.¹

I will report exhaustively one in place of many
such examples from my professional experience.
A young woman broke her leg below the knee
in a carriage accident so that she was bedridden
for weeks. The striking part of it was the lack
of any manifestation of pain and the calmness
with which she bore her misfortune. This
calamity ushered in a long and serious neurotic
illness, from which she was finally cured by
psychotherapy. During the treatment I dis-
covered the circumstances surrounding the
accident, as well as certain impressions which
preceded it. The young woman with her jealous
husband spent some time on the farm of her
married sister, in company with her numerous
other brothers and sisters with their wives and

¹The self-inflicted injury which does not entirely tend
toward self-annihilation has, moreover, no other choice in
our present state of civilization than to hide itself behind
the accidental, or to break through in a simulation of
spontaneous illness. Formerly, it was a customary sign
of mourning, at other times it expressed itself in ideas of
piety and renunciation of the world.

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Psychopathology of Everyday Life

husbands. One evening ’she gave an exhibi-
tion of one of her talents before this intimate
circle; she danced artistically the “cancan,” to
the great delight of her relatives, but to the
great annoyance of her husband, who afterward
whispered to her, “Again you have behaved like
a prostitute.” The words took effect; we will
leave it undecided whether it was just on account
of the dance. That night she was restless in
her sleep, and the next forenoon she decided to
go out driving. She chose the horses herself,
refusing one team and demanding another. Her
youngest sister wished to have her baby with its
nurse accompany her, but she opposed this vehe-
mently. During the drive she was nervous; she
reminded the coachman that the horses were
getting skittish, and as the fidgety animals really
produced a momentary difficulty she jumped from
the carriage in fright and broke her leg, while
those remaining in the carriage were uninjured.
Although after the disclosure of these details we
can hardly doubt that this accident was really
contrived, we cannot fail to admire the skill which
forced the accident to mete out a punishment
so suitable to the crime. For as it happened
“ cancan ” dancing with her became impossible
for a long time.

Concerning self-inflicted injuries of my own
experience, I cannot report anything in calm
times, but under extraordinary conditions I do

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out Actions

not believe myself incapable of such acts. When
a member of my family complains that he or she
has bitten his tongue, bruised her finger, and so
on, instead of the expected sympathy I put the
question, “Why did you do that?” But I have
most painfully squeezed my thumb, after a youth-
ful patient acquainted me during the treatment
with his intention (naturally not to be taken
seriously) of marrying my eldest daughter, while
I knew that she was then in a private hospital
in extreme danger of losing her life.

One of my boys, whose vivacious tempera-
ment was wont to put difficulties in the manage-
ment of nursing him in his illness, had a fit of
anger one morning because he was ordered to
remain in bed during the forenoon, and
threatened to kill himself: a way out suggested
to him by the newspapers. In the evening he
showed me a swelling on the side of his chest
which was the result of bumping against the
door knob. To my ironical question why he
did it, and what he meant by it, the eleven-
year-old child explained, “That was my attempt
at suicide which I threatened this morning.”
However, I do not believe that my views on
self-inflicted wounds were accessible to my
children at that time.

Whoever believes in the occurrence of semi-
intentional self-inflicted injury—if this awkward
expression be permitted—will become prepared

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Psychopathology of Everyday Life

to accept through it the fact that aside from
conscious intentional suicide there also exists
semi-intentional annihilation—with unconscious
intention—which is capable of aptly utilizing
a threat against life and masking it as a
casual mishap. Such mechanism is by no means
rare. For the tendency to self-destruction exists
to a certain degree in many more persons than in
those who bring it to completion. Self-inflicted
injuries are, as a rule, a compromise between
this impulse and the forces working against it,
and even where it really comes to suicide the
inclination has existed for a long time with less
strength or as an unconscious and repressed
tendency.

Even suicide consciously committed chooses
its time, means, and opportunity; it is quite
natural that unconscious suicide should wait for
a motive to take upon itself one part of the
causation and thus free it from its oppression by
taking up the defensive forces of the person.¹

¹The case is then identical with a sexual attack on a
woman, in whom the attack of the man cannot be warded
off through the full muscular strength of the woman because
a portion of the unconscious feelings of the one attacked
meets it with ready acceptance. To be sure, it is said that
such a situation paralyses the strength of a woman; we need
only add the reasons for this paralysis. Insofar the clever
sentence of Sancho Panza, which he pronounced as governor
of his island, is psychologically unjust (Don Quixote, vol. ii.
chap. xlv). A woman hauled before the judge a man who
was supposed to have robbed her of her honour by force of

Erroneously Carried-out Actions

These are in no way idle discussions which I
here bring up; more than one case of appar-
ently accidental misfortune (on a horse or out
of a carriage) has become known to me whose
surrounding circumstances justified the suspicion
of suicide.

For example, during an officers’ horse-race one
of the riders fell from his horse and was so
seriously injured that a few days later he suc-
cumbed to his injuries. His behaviour after
regaining consciousness was remarkable in more
than one way, and his conduct previous to the
accident was still more remarkable. He had
been greatly depressed by the death of his
beloved mother, had crying spells in the society
of his comrades, and to his trusted friend had
spoken of the tædium vitæ. He had wished to
quit the service in order to take part in a war
in Africa which had no interest for him.¹

violence. Sancho indemnified her with a full purse which
he took from the accused, but after the departure of the
woman he gave the accused permission to follow her and
snatch the purse from her. Both returned wrestling, the
woman priding herself that the villain was unable to possess
himself of the purse. Thereupon Sancho spoke: “Had
you shown yourself so stout and valiant to defend your body
(nay, but half so much) as you have done to defend your
purse, the strength of Hercules could not have forced you.”

¹ It is evident that the situation of a battlefield is such as
to meet the requirement of conscious suicidal intent which,
nevertheless, shuns the direct way. Cf. in Wallenstein the
words of the Swedish captain concerning the death of Max
Piccolomini: “They say he wished to die.”

203

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Psychopathology of Everyday Life

Formerly a keen rider, he had later evaded riding
whenever possible. Finally, before the horse-
race, from which he could not withdraw, he ex-
pressed a sad foreboding, which most expectedly
in the light of our conception came true. It
may be contended that it is quite comprehensible
without any further cause that a person in such
a state of nervous depression cannot manage a
horse as well as on normal days. I quite agree
with that, only I should like to look for the
mechanism of this motor inhibition through
“nervousness” in the intention of self-destruction
here emphasized.

Dr. Ferenczi has left to me for publication
the analysis of an apparently accidental injury
by shooting which he explained as an unconscious
attempt at suicide. I can only agree with his
deduction :—

“J. Ad., 22 years old, carpenter, visited me
on the 18th of January, 1908. He wished to
know whether the bullet which pierced his left
temple March 20, 1907, could or should be
removed by operation. Aside from occasional,
not very severe, headaches, he felt quite well,
also the objective examination showed nothing
besides the characteristic powder wound on the
left temple, so that I advised against an opera-
tion. When questioned concerning the circum-
stances of the case he asserted that he injured
himself accidentally. He was playing with his

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Erroneously Carried-out Actions

brother’s revolver, and believing that it was not
loaded he pressed it with his left hand against
the left temple (he is not left-
handed), put his finger on the trigger, and the shot went off.
There were three bullets in the six-
shooter.

“I asked him how he came to carry the
revolver, and he answered that it was at the
time of his army conscription, that he took it
to the inn the evening before because he
feared fights. At the army examination he
was considered unfit for service on account of
varicose veins, which caused him much morti-
fication. He went home and played with the
revolver. He had no intention of hurting him-
self, but the accident occurred. On further
questioning whether he was otherwise satisfied
with his fortune, he answered with a sigh, and
related a love affair with a girl who loved him
in return, but nevertheless left him. She emi-
grated to America out of sheer avariciousness.
He wanted to follow her, but his parents pre-
vented him. His lady-love left on the 20th of
January, 1907, just two months before the
accident.

“Despite all these suspicious elements the
patient insisted that the shot was an ‘accident.’
I was firmly convinced, however, that the neglect
to find out whether the revolver was loaded before
he began to play with it, as well as the self-
inflicted injury, were psychically determined. He

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Psychopathology of Everyday Life

was still under the depressing effects of the un-
happy love affair, and apparently wanted ‘to
forget everything’ in the army. When this hope,
too, was taken away from him he resorted to
playing with the weapon—that is, to an uncon-
scious attempt at suicide. The fact that he did
not hold the re-
volver in the right but in the
left hand speaks conclusively in favour of the
fact that he was really only ‘play-
ing’—that is,
he did not wish consciously to commit suicide.”

Another analysis of an apparently accidental
self-inflicted wound, detailed to me by an
observer, recalls the saying, “He who digs
a pit for others falls in himself.”¹⁾

“Mrs. X., belonging to a good middle-
class
family, is married and has three children. She
is somewhat nervous, but never needed any
strenuous treatment, as she could sufficiently adapt
herself to life. One day she sustained a rather
striking though transitory disfigure-
ment of her
face in the following manner: She stumbled in
a street that was in process of repair and
struck her face against the house wall. The
whole face was bruised, the eyelids blue and
œdema-
tous, and as she feared that some-
thing
might happen to her eyes she sent for the doctor.
After she was calmed I asked her, ‘But why
did you fall in such a manner?’ She answered

¹⁾“Selbstbestrafung wegen Abortus von Dr. J. E. G. van
Emden,” Haag (Holland), Zentralb. f. Psychoanalyse, ii. 12.

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Erroneously Carried-out Actions

that just before this accident she warned her
husband, who had been suffering for some
months from a joint affection, to be very careful
in the street, and she often had the experience
that in some remarkable way those things
occurred to her against which she warned others.
“I was not satisfied with this as the deter-
mination of her accident, and asked her whether
she had not something else to tell me. ‘Yes,
just before the accident she noticed a nice picture
in a shop on the other side of the street, which
she suddenly desired as an ornament for her
nursery, and wished to buy it at once. She
thereupon walked across to the shop without
looking at the street, stumbled over a heap of
stones, and fell with her face against the wall
without making the slightest effort to shield her-
self with her hands. The intention to buy the
picture was immediately forgotten, and she
walked home in haste.’
“ ‘But why were you not more careful?’ I
asked.
“ ‘Oh!’ she answered, ‘perhaps it was only
a punishment for that episode which I confided
to you!’
“ ‘Has this episode still bothered you?’
“ ‘Yes, later I regretted it very much; I con-
sidered myself wicked, criminal, and immoral,
but at the time I was almost crazy with
nervousness.’

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Psychopathology of Everyday Life

“She referred to an abortion which was
started by a quack and had to be brought to
completion by a gynecologist. This abortion was
initiated with the consent of her husband, as
both wished, on account of their pecuniary
circumstances, to be spared from being addi-
tionally blessed with children.

“She said: ‘I had often reproached myself
with the words, “You really had your child
killed,” and I feared that such a crime could
not remain unpunished. Now that you have
assured me that there is nothing seriously wrong
with my eyes I am quite assured I have already
been sufficiently punished.’

“This accident, therefore, was, on the one
hand, a retribution for her sin, but, on the other
hand, it may have served as an escape from a
more dire punishment which she had feared for
many months. In the moment that she ran to
the shop to buy the picture the memory of this
whole history, with its fears (already quite active
in her unconscious at the time she warned her
husband), became overwhelming and could
perhaps find expression in words like these:

‘But why do you want an ornament for the
nursery?—you who had your child killed! You
are a murderer! The great punishment is surely
approaching!’

“This thought did not become conscious, but
instead of it she made use of the situation—I

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Erroneously Carried-out Actions

might say of the psychologic moment—to utilize
in a commonplace manner the heap of stones to
inflict upon herself this punishment. It was for
this reason that she did not even attempt to
put out her arms while falling and was not much
frightened. The second, and probably lesser,
determinant of her accident was obviously the
self-punishment for her unconscious wish to be
rid of her husband, who was an accessory to
the crime in this affair. This was betrayed by
her absolutely superfluous warning to be very
careful in the street on account of the stones.
For, just because her husband had a weak leg,
he was very careful in walking.”

If such a rage against one’s own integrity and
one’s own life can be hidden behind apparently
accidental awkwardness and motor insufficiency,
then it is not a big step forward to grasp the
possibility of transferring the same conception
to mistakes which seriously endanger the life
and health of others. What I can put forward
as evidence for the validity of this conception
was taken from my experience with neurotics,
and hence does not fully meet the demands of
this situation. I will report a case in which it
was not an erroneously carried-out action, but
what may be more aptly termed a symbolic or
chance action that gave me the clue which later
made possible the solution of the patient’s con-
flict.

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Psychopathology of Everyday Life

I once undertook to improve the marriage
relations of a very intelligent man, whose dif-
ferences with his tenderly attached young wife
could surely be traced to real causes, but as he
himself admitted could not be altogether ex-
plained through them. He continually occupied
himself with the thought of a separation, which he
repeatedly rejected because he dearly loved his
two small children. In spite of this he always
returned to that resolution and sought no means
to make the situation bearable to himself. Such
an unsettlement of a conflict served to prove to
me that there were unconscious and repressed
motives which enforced the conflicting conscious
thoughts, and in such cases I always undertake
to end the conflict by psychic analysis. One
day the man related to me a slight occurrence
which had extremely frightened him. He was
sporting with the older child, by far his favourite.
He tossed it high in the air and repeated this
tossing till finally he thrust it so high that its
head almost struck the massive gas chandelier.
Almost, but not quite, or say “just about!”
Nothing happened to the child except that it
became dizzy from fright. The father stood
transfixed with the child in his arms, while the
mother merged into an hysterical attack. The
particular facility of this careless movement, with
the violent reaction in the parents, suggested to
me to look upon this accident as a symbolic

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Erroneously Carried-out Actions

action which gave expression to an evil intention
toward the beloved child.

I could remove the contradiction of the actual
tenderness of this father for his child by referring
the impulse to injure it to the time when it was
the only one, and so small that as yet the father
had no occasion for tender interest in it. Then
it was easy to assume that this man, so little
pleased with his wife at that time, might have
thought: “If this small being for whom I have
no regard whatever should die, I would be free
and could separate from my wife.” The wish
for the death of this much loved being must
therefore have continued unconsciously. From
here it was easy to find the way to the uncon-
scious fixation of this wish.

There was indeed a powerful determinant in
a memory from the patient’s childhood: it re-
ferred to the death of a little brother, which the
mother laid to his father’s negligence, and which
led to serious quarrels with threats of separation
between the parents. The continued course of
my patient’s life, as well as the therapeutic suc-
cess confirmed my analysis.