About this audiobook
Forgotten names, slips of the tongue and misplaced objects become the starting points for Sigmund Freud's examination of everyday mistakes. He proposes that some apparently accidental failures can be interpreted in relation to wishes, associations and conflicts that a person does not consciously acknowledge. Familiar incidents thus become material for a broader psychoanalytic argument.
Freud gathers examples from his own experience and the accounts of others, following chains of association in search of possible meanings. The interest of the book lies partly in the movement from a small occurrence to an elaborate explanation. His confidence in interpretation also makes the assumptions behind each explanation important to consider.
This is a historical presentation of Freud's approach, rather than proof that every mistake reveals a hidden motive. The work explores how ordinary behaviour might become a subject of interpretation, inviting attention both to the appeal of finding meaning and to the difficulty of deciding what an explanation establishes.
