Freudian Slips

Most of us have probably at least heard the name Sigmund Freud. You may only know of him as the psychologist guy from a long time ago, and I’ll admit that my knowledge of his is very rudimentary. You may not know what he theorized in the field of the subconscious, but you have probably heard the term derived from his namesake, a Freudian slip.

For those of you who haven’t, a Freudian slip, or parapraxis, are commonly thought of as ‘slips of the tongue’ or unconsciously saying something that you didn’t otherwise mean to say, but in terms of psychoanalysis, things such as misplacing objects, mishearing or reading, and forgetfulness are also included within the Freudian slip theory. As entertaining as some of the examples might be, like calling a girlfriend by the name of your ex, it is believed that these ‘slips’ reveal what you are actually thinking about or what is repressed.

Here is a brief video of some examples if you are still unclear about what exactly they are (for some reason many of these slips lead to sexual references).

If in fact these ‘slips’ are caused by repressed thoughts on certain topics, then can’t these subtle, and often times, missed bits of communication function as a window into the beliefs of a society or someone’s past that they have tried to block out? By delving into the source of the ‘slip’ we would consequently be uniting the conscious with the unconscious. This raises another question: do we truly want to have only one consciousness or would we be better off with having conscious and unconscious thought?

Freudian slips are not restricted to speech but can also pop up in writing. It is these intricacies that can help investigate the psyche of the characters. I am planning on looking specifically for these Freudian slips as my class finishes reading Hamlet by William Shakespeare. I believe that it will be the specific words he says, or unconsciously says, that will reveal whether or not Hamlet is actually insane, an issue that has already be broached in class.

Sounds have Meaning?

In class we have been talking a lot about how the sound of words can add meaning to a passage, line, poem, or any other work of literature. To be honest, I don’t really think that I buy it. The best example I have to demonstrate this skepticism that I have was when I was reading in poem in my English class a few years ago, and my teacher was convinced that the repetition of the “p” sound was intentionally put there to mimic the sound of gunfire.

I think that often we are subject of over analyzing whatever we are reading, and in the end we make something out of nothing. The following graphic is a depiction of this stance that one of my friends had posted up on Facebook (pardon the language).

I find that over analyzing just beats any piece of writing to death and makes me end up disliking many of the books that I read in school simply because I believe that we over analyzed them and attempted to synthesize meaning that simply wasn’t there. And for me, this idea of the sound of words having meaning seems too far-fetched. When I tried to get people to help me understand this apparently logical idea, I’ve gotten clear explanations like, “It makes sense to me.” or my personal favorite, “I play music so that’s why I understand it.” Well, I play music too and have been for longer than most people I know, and it still isn’t clear.

So I guess that I asking if there is anyone who can give a clear explanation of this concept because if I am missing something that is really cool from a literary stance, than I want to understand. I also don’t want an answer like, “Some people get and some people don’t.” It’s like understanding this concept is having membership to an exclusive club where the only way to become a member is to know the secret, but members aren’t allowed to tell the secret to anyone. There is nothing more frustrating.

Translations: Good or Bad?

Recently in class, we have been talking about the importance of translations of texts. What is lost in translation? Do the benefits of reading a translation outweigh imperfect translation and not being able to completely understand the work completely because of the language barrier? There are words and phrases that just don’t translate that may have cultural importance. If those cannot be effectively translated, then there may not be a point in reading a translated work because ignorance is better than an incomplete truth.
In languages such as Spanish there are three forms of “you.” The first is used when talking to someone older than you or in a polite atmosphere, whereas the second form is used in a much more casual sense, like that between friends, and the third is used when talking to many people that you are referring to as “you”. In English, there is no such distinction. “You” stands for all of those things. When translating into English from Spanish, this poses a problem because in Spanish because the different forms give a sense of a social hierarchy which could lead to completely different understandings in English and Spanish versions.
Do challenges like this mean that translations are useless and should not be read? Well, this is a topic that my class debated for a while without coming to a clear resolution. Translations can windows into the cultures of other peoples and can offer a perspective of that culture that cannot be understood by simply studying their history. There is a reason that people say you cannot be fluent in another language until you have immersed yourself within that culture because there are too many linguistic nuances that are impossible to learn in a classroom. At the same time, while translations can lead to alternative meanings in different languages, the same story can cause people to reach different conclusions within its original language. For example, Islamic terrorism has risen out of an interpretation of the Quran in Arabic. I doubt that authors would oppose these differing conclusions because they would only lead to dialogue about issues broached in their works.
You could argue that translations cause more harm and misunderstanding that they do good, but I would argue the opposite. They provide a new perspective of alternative cultures that is unattainable otherwise, and they create a dialogue from different understandings that can only lead to more complete understanding of a topic from an intellectual level.