6 - Phenomena of Ordinary Waking Life

Summary

Freud’s investigation of mental life took him beyond psychoneuroses and dreams to other phenomena of waking life. Though well aware of behavior requiring no special explanation, he identified some occurrences on which he thought he might productively bring his explanatory apparatus to bear. Those occurrences consist of short-term behaviors and experiences that, although common, elude straightforward explanation, thus licensing Freud to explore the applicability of the mechanisms he had ascribed to other instances of non-ordinary functioning.

The chapter examines his treatment of the mental glitches he called parapraxes – small involuntary errors, like slips of the tongue – and jokes, as well as more passive experiences like getting lost in a book and the feeling of the uncanny. In each instance, Freud builds a more compelling case than he does with respect to dreams that processes along the lines he proposes are needed to produce the result in question.