University of the East

Manila

Freudian Slips

Rebecca Ellen Z. Tolentino

ZEN 112/BS3B

22 October 2014

Most of us live in fear of unleashing a Freudian slip.

Do you?
- Jean Pincott

Table of Contents

I.

Introduction

II.

Freudian Slips
A. Definition
B. History
1. Psychoanalysis
1.1 Basic Tenets of Psychoanalysis
2. Sigmund Freud
C. Examples
D. Connection to the unconscious desires and drives and repressed
memory
D.1. Unconscious forces
D.1.aId, Ego, Superego
D.1.b Iceberg Theory
D.1.c. Repressed Memories
D.2 Slips road to the unconsciousness
E. Analyzing Freudian Slips
E.1 Free Association
F. Validity
G. Contradictions

III.
IV.

Conclusions

Bibliography

Introduction
Have you ever experienced saying things you didnt mean to
accidentally? For example, you were supposed to say a word but instead you
have said another word who is not related to the word youre really about to
say. This phenomenon is so-called slips of the tongue or Freudian Slips as
bagged by the well-known Psychoanalyst Sigmund Freud.
Every one of us probably experiences this kind of scenario-the slips of
the tongue-since these slips happen during our speech and speech plays a very
important part in our conversations. Little did we know that these slips of the
tongue have a meaning and theyre not just mere accident.
This paper will answer the following questions:
-

What is Freudian Slips?

How does Freudian Slips happen?
How to determine/analyse a Freudian Slips?
Are Freudian Slips the road to unconscious?
Are Freudian Slips valid?

FREUDIAN SLIPS

A. Definition
According to Sigmund Freud, slips are bungled acts: a slip of the tongue, a
slip of the pen, or a lapse memory.Slips of the tongue are almost inevitable. According to
a study held by a university, for every one thousand (1,000) words spoken, we make one
or two errors. Considering that the average pace of speech is one hundred fifty
(150)words a minute, a slip is bound to occur once every seven minutes of continuous
talks. Each day, most of us make somewhere between seven (7) and twenty-two (22)
verbal slips. Many of us dismiss such events as trivial and meaningless, but to Freud,
slips like these are not without meaning. Because according to him, these error in speech,
memories, or physical action is due to the interference of an unconscious subdued wish,
conflict, or train of thought guided by the ego and the rules of correct behaviour. He also
called these Freudian slips as Fehlleistungen. Freudian slips are not just the words we
accidentally said but also these are also the words we cannot recall while speaking.But
according to other philologist, slips of the tongue are just banana peels in the path of a
sentence, an accidental shift of linguistic unit.

B. History
Freudian slips or also known as slips of the tongue are used by Sigmund Freud in his
Psychotherapy. Freudian slips are based on Freuds Psychoanalysis. What is
Psychoanalysis? Psychoanalysis is a distinctive form of psychological treatment and a
model of psychological functioning, human development, and psychopathology. There
are six (6) basic tenets of Psychoanalysis:

1. Besides the inherited constitution of personality, a persons development is

determined by events in childhood.
2. Human attitude, mannerism, experience, and thought is largely influenced by
irrational drives.
3. Irrational drives are unconscious.
4. Attempts to bring these drives into awareness meet psychological resistance in the
form of defense mechanisms.
5. Conflicts between conscious and unconscious, or repressed, material can
materialise in form of mental or emotional disturbances for example: anxiety,
neurotic traits, depression, etc.
6. The liberation from the effects of the unconscious material is achieved through
bringing this material into the conscious mind.
Freudian Slips are one of Freuds ways of determining his patients unconscious
desires. According to him, repressed desires are shown little by little by those slips. But
who is Sigmund Freud?
Sigmund Freud was an Austrian neurologist who became known as the founding
father of Psychoanalysis. He was known for his repressed sexual desires toward her
mother leading him to construct his theory of Oedipus Complex.
C. Examples
Here is an example of a slip and its analysis in which Freud reports in his book, The
Psychopathology of Everyday Life. He recalls how a young student was talking excitedly
about the difficulties of his generation and tried to end his comment with a well-known
Latin quotation from Virgil but could not finish the line. Freud recognized the quotation
and cited it correctly: Exoriarealiquisnostris ex ossibusultor (Let someone arise from
my bones as an avenger.) The forgotten word was aliquis(someone). The student was
embarrassed but, remembering the significance that Freud attached to such slips,

indicated that he was curious to learn why he had forgotten the word. Freud took up the
challenge and asked the student to tell him honestly and without any censorship whatever
came to his mind when he directed his attention to the word aliquis. The first thought that
sprang to his mind was the notion of dividing the word as follows; a andliquis. Next
came the words relics, liquefy, fluid. These associations had little meaning for him, but he
continued and thought of Simon of Trent and the accusations of ritual blood sacrifices
that had often been brought against the Jewish people. Next he thought of an article that
he had read recently entitled When Saint Agustine Said Concerning Women. The next
thought appeared to be totally unconnected, but following the cardinal rule he repeated it
anyway. He was thinking of a fine old gentleman whose name was Benedict. At this
point, Freud noted that he had referred to a group of saints and church fathers: St. Simon,
St. Augustine, and St. Benedict. That comment made the student think of St. Januarius
and the miracle of blood. Here, Freud observed that both St. Januarius and St. Augustine
had something to do with the calendar and asked the student to refresh his memory about
the miracle of the blood. The blood of St. Januarius is held in a vial in a church in Naples.
On a particular holy day it miraculously liquefies. The people attach a great deal of
importance to this miracle and become very upset if delayed. Once it was delayed and the
general in command of the city took the priest aside and made it clear to him that the
miracle had better take place very soon. At this point the student hesitated. The next
thought was surely too intimate to pass on and, besides, it had little connection. He had
suddenly thought of a lady from whom he might gen an awkward piece of news. Could
it be, Freud guessed, that she missed her period?

Another example of a Freudian Slip is the late US Senator Ted Kennedys speech
about education that was aired on C-SPAN. The senator often moved his hands when he
spoke, and his gestures were especially expansive that particular day. His voice conveyed
a sense of urgency that made a pulses race. Our national interest, he intoned, ought to
be to encourage his strong hands cupped the air, the breast. The audience tittered,
but they didnt have the opportunity to savour the gaffe. Without hesitation, the master
orator backed up and started again. This time, it came out right. The best and the
brightest.
Another example is one of former US Presidents interview his speech was, For
seven and a half years, Ive worked alongside President Reagan, he declared. Weve
had triumphs. Made some mistakes. Weve had some sex uh setbacks.
These are some examples of a Freudian slips and will be further explained and
expounded.
D. Connection to the unconscious desires and drives and repressed memory
For Freud, slips are not just mere errors in our speech. For him, slips reflects our
unconscious drives and desires and it mirrors our repressed memories. But what is
unconscious? Is it just the state of not being conscious? Freud has different and vast
meaning of the word unconscious.
Unconscious Forces
In Freuds psychoanalytic theory of personality, the unconscious mind is a reservoir of
feelings, thoughts, urges, and memories that outside of our conscious awareness. Most of
the contents of the unconscious are unacceptable or unpleasant, such as feelings of pain,
anxiety, or conflict. According to Freud, the unconscious continues to influence our
behaviour and experience, even though we are unaware of these underlying influences.

Unconscious processes are understood to be expressed in dreams in symbolical forms and

in slips of the tongue. The unconscious does not include all that is not conscious, but
rather what is actively repressed from conscious thought or what a person is averse to
knowing consciously. However, the contents did not necessarily have to be solely
negative. In the psychoanalytic view, the unconscious is a force that can only be
recognized by its effect-it expresses itself in the symptom. Unconscious thoughts are not
directly accessible to ordinary introspection, but are supposed to be capable of being
tapped and interpreted by special methods and techniques such as meditation, free
association, dream analysis and verbal slips. Freud based his concept of the unconscious
on a variety of observations. For example, he considered slips of the tongue to be
related to the unconscious in that they often appeared to show a persons true feelings on
a subject. For example, I decided to take a summer curse. This example shows a slip of
the word course where the speaker accidentally used the word curse which would show
that they have a negative feelings about having to do this.
Id, Ego, Superego
Freud divided the mind into the conscious mind (Ego) and the unconscious mind. The
latter was divided into the Id (instincts or drives) and the Superego (conscience). The Id
is the core of our being. The id includes all the instincts and drives that motivate us as
well as our genetic inheritance and our reflexes and capacities to respond. Id represents
our basic drives, needs, and wishes. Further, it is the reservoir of psychic energy that
provides the power for all psychological functioning. The Id operates according to the
pleasure principle which refers to seeking immediate tension reduction. Henceforth, the
id seeks to satisfy its need partly through reflex actions. For example, our Id wants us to
gain more attention from other people because it satisfies its pleasure. The Ego, on the

other hand, emerges in order to realistically meet the wishes and demands of the id in
accordance with the outside world. The ego evolves out of the ID and acts as an
intermediary between the Id ad the external world. If the Id obeys the pleasure principle,
the ego follows the reality principle, satisfying the Ids impulses in an appropriate manner
in the external world. Ego serves as the balancing force between the Id and Superego.
Harbored within the ego as its innermost core is the Superego, it represents internalized
values, ideas and moral standards. The Superego is the last function of the personality to
develop. The superego strives for perfection; it seeks moralistic rather than realistic
solutions. Practically speaking, the development of the superego is a necessity. Because it
contradicts what the Id wants.
For example, you are in a middle of a class. And suddenly you became hungry.
But you have nothing to eat. Youre Id works and will push you to leave the room and cut
your classes, and have something to eat in order to please its desire. But then your
Superego emerges and tells you that you must not follow the desire of your Id since its
wrong to cut classes and you cant leave the room. So your ego will make a way to satisfy
both your Id and Superego thus, telling you that you can leave and buy food after the
class is done. With this decision, both the Id and Superego were satisfied.
Iceberg Theory

The unconscious mind is often represented as an iceberg. If you will look at an iceberg, at
first you will think that the ice at the top is the whole ice but if you will look closely, the
ice submerged in the water is larger than the ice visible, the same with our consciousness.
According to Freud, the ice visible is our conscious mind while the larger part of the
iceberg which is submerged in the water and not visible is our unconscious mind. In
accordance to this, Freud theorized that the conscious part of our brain is only 10% and
the remaining part which is the unconscious constitutes the 90%. Concluding from
Freuds theory, our brain (cognitive function of the brain) has still 90% part to be
discovered. These may include our irrational desires, unaccepted drives and repressed
memories.
Repressed Memories
Repressed memories are hypothesized memories having been unconsciously blocked, due
to the memory being associated with a high level of stress or trauma. You may recall
being punished as a child but be unable, how hard you try, to remember why you were
punished. Such a memory has been rendered unconscious or repressed. It can be recalled,
if at all, only with considerable difficulty. Here is a true to life incident which shows that
memories can be repressed.
A 8-year old Susan Nason disappeared on her way to visit a neighbour in Foster City,
California. Two months later, her body was found in a nearby reservoir. The coroner
concluded that Susan had died from a fractured skull. An investigation followed, but with
little evidence to go on, police never found the killer. Twenty years later, Eileen FranklinLipsker, a childhood friend of the victims, sat with her daughter in her Los Angeles
home. Suddenly, Franklin-Lipsker recalled images of Susans death. She could see a man
sexually assaulting the girl and the smashing her head with a rock. Franklin-Lipsker also

knew the identity of the man in her memories-it was her own father, George Franklin.
Based on little more than his daughters testimony, in 1990 George Franklin was tried and
convicted for Susan Nasons murder. Jurors who listened to Franklin-Lipskers testimony
were convinced she could not have known the details provided unless she had been at the
scene of the crime. But why had the memories taken 20 years to surface? The prosecution
argued that the nature of the memories was so traumatic Franklin-Lipsker had repressed
them into an unconscious part of her mind. It was noticing the physical similarity
between her daughter and Susan that triggered the long-repressed images and allowed
them to enter consciousness.
Slips road to the unconsciousness
The unconscious, three structures of personality (Id, Ego, Superego) and repressed
memories were already discussed. What is the connection of the three with Freudian
Slips? Through Freudian Slips, we can take a sneak peek to the unconscious part of our
minds because based on Freudsstatement, slips are not mere errors in our speech. The
unconscious desires and irrational drives are shown and expressed through Freudian slips.
If those drives are suppressed (especially those whose unacceptable and irrational) are
manifested through Freudian slips. When it comes to the Id, Ego, Superego, if the ego is
weak and not strong enough to balance what the Id desires and what the Superego
demands, the ego will block the needs the Id and Superego wants and those needs are
expressed through Freudian Slips. And lastly, the repressed memories. Repressed
memories can also be determined by Freudian Slips. Some slips are connected to the
memories from our past that are traumatic or painful for us and manifest in us through
those slips of the tongue. There are slips that are obvious but often, a slip is not so
obvious and is revealed only after a long chain of associations.

E. Analyzing Freudian Slips

As what has been stated from the previous subtopic, there are slips that are
obvious that doesnt need to have a long chain of association and some are not. Take the
example from Ted Kennedy and Bushs slips during their speeches mentioned above.
Their slips are obvious. For Bushs, it doesnt necessarily mean that he had sex with
former President Reagan or he wants to have sex with him but it could mean that he had a
problem in regarding to his slip such as his sexual relationship with his wife or he
suffered from sexual abuse in his childhood. In Kennedys slip, instead of best he was
able to said breast, it could probably mean that he has a problem with his breast or have
an irrational and unacceptable desire of touching breasts as shown by his hand
movements during his speech. These examples of slips are obvious and dont need to
have a long chain of free association. But what is free association?
Free Association
Free Association is a process of encouraging the clients in a psychotherapy to attempt to
suspend their self-critical function and verbalize fantasies, images, associations, and
feelings that are on the edge of awareness. This process is used if the slips are not
obvious. From the example Freud cited in his book The Psychopathology of Everyday
Life his students slip is not obvious since it is not an error in his speech but a lapse in
his memory. If you can recall, it is stated in the definition of Freudian Slip that it is not
just the slip of the tongue but a lapse in ones memory. Freud wasnt able to analyse his
slip immediately. Since it is not obvious, he used the process of Free Association. He told
his student to verbalize whatever thought that come up in his mind without any
hesitation. The student did what he said until Freud came up to the thought that she
probably missed her period when the student came up to the word St. Januarius and St.

Augustine which has something to do with miracle of the blood that it is bad if they
missed the miracle of the blood. As you can see the student was a man but Freud was
referring to a woman on his analysis of the students slip. If analysed clearly and
carefully, you can hypothesized that his partner missed her period and has a possibility of
being pregnant which is connected to the words that came up in his mind during the free
association. Analysing slips that arent obvious are always followed up by free
association. You have to tell the individual to verbalize the thoughts that come up to their
minds without hesitation and after that you have to analyse and connect whats in
common with them, and there you will be able to see whats behind those Freudian slips.
F. Validity
Many question the validity of Freuds theory. Because according to them, Freuds theory
is solely based on unconscious desires and drives when in fact there are many factors that
motivates people. They believe that Freuds theories were based too little on quantitative
and experimental and too much on clinical case study method. But there are also people
who agrees that this theory of Freud, the Freudian Slip is valid. They can't be disproven
in any systematic way, which means they're largely exempt from actually being tested.
Most of his theories are based on case studies - a few data points with a huge amount of
his own interpretation thrown on top. This isn't bad as a sort of philosophy, but doesn't
lead to an objective 'truth'. Freudian slip holds an astonishing power to terrorize ordinary
men and women. It threatens to reveal passions and motives and problems that lurk so far
below the surface that we don't even know they exist. If Freud is right, then each one of
us, at any given moment, harbors an F-bomb just waiting to explode. In fact there is an
article that proves that Freudian Slips are true and valid:

Theory behind the Freudian slip is finally proven after 111 years, new research claims
The theory of unconscious conflict which leads to the Freudian slip has been
scientifically supported 111 years after it was theorised, claims research.
A new study has revealed how the theory, which forms part of the basis of
psychoanalysis, is linked to the conscious symptoms of people with anxiety disorders
such as phobias.
For years, people have referred to mistakes, like calling a partner by the wrong name, as a
Freudian slip. They are believed to reveal unconscious thoughts or feelings driving
people's behaviour.
According to Freud's theory, the conscious mind includes everything that people are
aware of - an aspect of mental processing that can help people think and talk rationally
with others.
The unconscious mind is the realm of feelings, thoughts, urges, and memories of which
people are unaware. Often they are unacceptable or unpleasant, such as feelings of pain,
anxiety, or conflict, and hence repressed.
But the unconscious continues to influence our behaviour and experience, even though
we are unaware of these underlying influences.
Freud postulated that it is the conflicts between the conscious view of reality and
unconscious, repressed material can cause mental disturbances such as anxiety,
depression and obsession.

Researchers took 11 people with anxiety disorders who all received psychoanalysis as
part of the study, to see what underlying unconscious conflict might be causing the
anxiety.

G. Contradictions
Psychologist nowadays doesnt believe that Freudian slips are connected to our
sub consciousness.Slips of the tongue are merely error on a persons speech and can be
explained by cognitive and linguistics not by psychoanalysis. According to Rudolf
Meringer, slips are just banana peels in the path of a sentence, accidental shifts of
linguistic unit. Also, according to him, an error is just an error and a banana is just a
banana. Cognitive Scientist Gary Dell, a professor of linguistics and psychology at the
University of Illinois at Urbana, contends that slips of the tongue are indeed revealing-of
a persons capacity for using language and its components. In his view, concepts, words,
and sounds are interconnected in three networks in the brainthe semantic, lexical, and
phonologicaland speech arises from their interaction. But every so often, the networks,
which operate through a process he calls "spreading activation," trip over each other. The
result is a slip of the tongue. And that, he believes, is a good thing. A language-production
system that is error-prone allows for the "novel production" of words. It is prima facie
evidence of linguistic flexibility, proof of the great dexterity of the human mind.
Sometimes nodes for a sound that occurs later in a sentence are activated
prematurely and the later sound is substituted for the correct one. The result is a slip
known as an anticipation, or forward error. Exhibit A is Ted Kennedy's "breast and

brightest" slip: the r sound from brightest rushed into the sentence and corrupted best. In
Bush's sexbacks the x sound at the end of the word setbacks turned set into sex.
Spreading activation helps explain another type of slip: perseveration, or
backwards error. "I love you" becomes "I love loo" because the node for the l sound
remains activated too long.
When one node for a phrase is activated prematurely and another is delayed, we
make spoonerisms (named for the blunder-prone Reverend William Archibald Spooner,
an Oxford don who collected humorous slips.)Activations within and between networks
can overlap, and nodes that represent thoughts, syntax, and sounds can cross, creating
confusion about the strongest activation. When a competing node is similar to the correct
one, it sometimes gains primacy and replaces it. Hence malapropisms with similar
associations: We ask for a yellow crayon when we really want orange, say final but mean
midterm, and call a friend her older sister's name. The more often you say a word, the
stronger the activation.
Node competition can also encourage us to slip on words that are similar
sounding, absurdly turning Osama into Obama, hospitality into hostility, insinuate into
incinerate, and creating faux pas like social leopards. When nodes representing different
words compete, their sounds can blend: Gratification and satisfaction become
gratifaction.

Hi, Dr. Freud. Im your new sexretary!

Conclusions

The slips we made every time we speak, according to Freud are not pure accident. They
have meanings and it may reflect the unconscious desires and irrational drives that are
unacceptable to our consciousness. These slips can be analysed if carefully and clearly
determined or by free associations if the meaning of the slips are not obvious.

But there are contraries. Modern psychologist, linguistics and cognitive scientists say
that slips are errors in our speeches and can be explained through linguistics properties
and rules and not just because of the unconscious forces within us.
Henceforth, there are valid slips of the tongues that can be determined by Freuds
theory and perspective; that slips are expressions of repressed memories, unconscious and
irrational drives and desires. But also there are slips of the tongue that can simply be
explained by linguistics and cognitive.

Not

all

slips

are

incidental

yet

not

all

BIBLIOGRAPHY
Books
Rathus, Spencer. 2012. Psychology.
Philippines: Cengange Learning Asia Pte.Ltd.
Engler, Barabara. 2012. Theories of Personality.
Philippines: Cengange Learning Asia Pte.Ltd.
Burger, Jerry M. 2011. Personality: An Introduction
Singapore: Cengange Learning Asia Pte.Ltd.

slips

are

purely

mistake.

Safran, Jeremy D. 2012. Psychoanalysis and Psychoanalytic Therapies

Washington, DC: American Psychological Association.
Freud, Sigmund. 1901. Psychopathology of Everyday Life.
Germany: Monograph for Psychiatry and Neurology
Websites:

http://www.psychologytoday.com/articles/201203/slips-the-tongue

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sigmund_Freud

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Freudian_slip

http://psychology.about.com/od/theoriesofpersonality/a/consciousuncon.htm

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-2161115/Theory-Freudian-slipconfirmed-experiments-new-research-claims.html