Psychopathology of Everyday Life · Sigmund Freud
ODE TO APOLLO
“No,” said the younger, “the name begins with, or contains, a _w_.” “But the Italian language contains no _w_,” retorted the elder. “I really meant a _v_, and I said _w_ because I am accustomed to interchange them in my mother tongue.” The elder, however, objected to the _v_. He added: “I believe that I have already forgotten many of the Sicilian names. Suppose we try to find out. For example, what is the name of the place situated on a height which was called _Enna_ in antiquity?” “Oh, I know that: _Castrogiovanni_.” In the next moment the younger man discovered the lost name. He cried out ‘_Castelvetrano_,’ and was pleased to be able to demonstrate the supposed _v_. For a moment the elder still lacked the feeling of recognition, but after he accepted the name he was able to state why it had escaped him. He thought: “Obviously because the second half, _vetrano_, suggests _veteran_. I am aware that I am not quite anxious to think of ageing, and react peculiarly when I am reminded of it. Thus, _e.g._, I had recently reminded a very esteemed friend in most unmistakable terms that he had ‘long ago passed the years of youth,’ because before this he once remarked in the most flattering manner, ‘I am no longer a young man.’ That my resistance was directed against the second half of the name _Castelvetrano_ is shown by the fact that the initial sound of the same returned in the substitutive name Caltanisetta.”
“What about the name Caltanisetta itself?” asked the younger. “That always seemed to me like a pet name of a young woman,” admitted the elder. Somewhat later he added: “The name for _Enna_ was also only a substitutive name. And now it occurs to me that the name _Castrogiovanni_, which obtruded itself with the aid of a rationalization, alludes as expressly to _giovane_, young, as the last name, _Castelvetrano_, to _veteran_.” The older man believed that he had thus accounted for his forgetting the name. What the motive was that led the young man to this memory failure was not investigated. In some cases one must have recourse to all the fineness of psychoanalytic technique in order to explain the forgetting of a name. Those who wish to read an example of such work I refer to a communication by Professor E. Jones.[8] I could multiply the examples of name-forgetting and prolong the discussion very much further if I did not wish to avoid elucidating here almost all the view-points which will be considered in later themes. I shall, however, take the liberty of comprehending in a few sentences the results of the analyses reported here. The mechanism of forgetting, or rather of losing or temporary forgetting of a name, consists in the disturbance of the intended reproduction of the name through a strange stream of thought unconscious at the time. Between the disturbed name and the disturbing complex there exists a connection either from the beginning or such a connection has been formed--perhaps by artificial means--through superficial (outer) associations.
The self-reference complex (personal, family or professional) proves to be the most effective of the disturbing complexes. A name which by virtue of its many meanings belongs to a number of thought associations (complexes) is frequently disturbed in its connection to one series of thoughts through a stronger complex belonging to the other associations. To avoid the awakening of pain through memory is one of the objects among the motives of these disturbances. In general one may distinguish two principal cases of name-forgetting; when the name itself touches something unpleasant, or when it is brought into connection with other associations which are influenced by such effects. So that names can be disturbed on their own account or on account of their nearer or more remote associative relations in the reproduction. A review of these general principles readily convinces us that the temporary forgetting of a name is observed as the most frequent faulty action of our mental functions. However, we are far from having described all the peculiarities of this phenomenon. I also wish to call attention to the fact that name-forgetting is extremely contagious. In a conversation between two persons the mere mention of having forgotten this or that name by one often suffices to induce the same memory slip in the other. But wherever the forgetting is induced, the sought for name easily comes to the surface. There is also a continuous forgetting of names in which whole chains of names are withdrawn from memory. If in the course of endeavouring to discover an escaped name one finds others with which the latter is intimately connected, it often happens that these new names also escape. The forgetting thus jumps from one name to another, as if to demonstrate the existence of a hindrance not to be easily removed.
Text from Project Gutenberg, public domain in the United States.