Psychopathology of Everyday Life · Sigmund Freud
FOOTNOTES:
In Turgentev’s _Smoke_ (p. 255) the following passage occurs: “‘So you still find Baden entertaining, M’sieur--Litvinov.’ Ratmirov always uttered Litvinov’s surname with hesitation, every time, as though he had forgotten it, and could not at once recall it. In this way, as well as by the lofty flourish of his hat in saluting him, he meant to insult his pride.” The same author, in his _Fathers and Children_ (p. 107), writes: “The Governor invited Kirsanov and Bazarov to his ball, and within a few minutes invited them a second time, regarding them as brothers, and calling them Kisarov.” Here the forgetting that he had spoken to them, the mistake in the names, and the inability to distinguish between the two young men, constitute a culmination of disparagement. Falsification of a name has the same signification as forgetting it; it is only a step towards complete amnesia.”] [Footnote 23: “Ce qu’on conçoit bien S’énonce clairement, Et les mots pour le dire Arrivent aisément.” Boileau, _Art Poétique_. ] [Footnote 26: A similar situation occurs in _Julius Cæsar_, iii. 3: “CINNA. Truly, my name is Cinna. “BURGHER. Tear him to pieces! he is a conspirator. “CINNA. I am Cinna the poet! not Cinna the conspirator. “BURGHER. No matter; his name is Cinna; tear the name out of his heart and let him go.”]
Girls who are proud of their beautiful hair know so well how to manipulate 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 eyeglasses, 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 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 Psychologie--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.]
UNWIN BROTHERS, LIMITED, THE GRESHAM PRESS, WOKING AND LONDON Transcriber’s Note Original copyright information has been retained, but this book is in the public domain in the country of publication. In the printed version of this text, footnotes were positioned at the bottom of each page. In the printed version, each chapter began with a page containing only its title, followed by a blank page. The chapter title was then repeated at the start of the chapter text. The first occurrences of the chapter titles have been removed, and the table of contents has been changed to reflect this. In this text file, _italics_ are indicated by underscores. The following changes were made by the transcriber: Title page, “A. A Brill” changed to “A. A. Brill”. Page 35, “‘Man created God in His own image.” changed to “‘Man created God in His own image.’” Page 48, “tyranically” changed to “tyrannically”. Page 93, end-quote added after “adultérer”. Page 117, ““Music Phantoms,”” changed to ““Music Phantoms”,”. Page 147, “f” was skipped in the list of case studies in the printed text; this has been corrected. Page 170, “had suddenly became” changed to “had suddenly become”. Page 179, “Il est arrivé a” changed to “Il est arrivé à”. Page 233 appears to introduce a list of examples with the numeral “I.”, but there are no following terms before the chapter ends. This was probably an error, but has been left uncorrected here.
Page 236, “hereuse” changed to “heureuse”. Page 266, end-quote added after “Saturday!”. Missing comma inserted after “187” in index entry for “Breaking of objects”. Missing comma inserted after “3” in index entry for “Forgetfulness, Temporary, of proper names”. Standardised indentation of “Psychology of” under index entry for “Speech Blunders”. Footnotes 1 and 9, “Monatschrift” changed to “Monatsschrift”. Footnote 34, “Geistesund Nervenkranken” changed to “Geistes- und Nervenkranken”; “Jenseits von Gut und Bosen” changed to “Jenseits von Gut und Böse”, and “Haupstuck” changed to “Hauptstück”. Footnote 42, the concluding end-quote has been added. Footnote 58, “Contribution a la psychologie” changed to “Contribution à la psychologie”. Footnote 59, end-quotes added after “habits” and “explain it”. Footnote 81, “Ferençzi” changed to “Ferenczi”.
Text from Project Gutenberg, public domain in the United States.