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.