Slips, a serious and fun topic at the same time

Often our unconscious takes control over what we want to say or do. As a result, lapses appear. Sometimes they reveal a hidden intention. Let’s see more in the next article

What are lapses? Let’s see it in the following example:

An anatomy teacher asks his students if they understood what he explained in his class. They all answer yes. To this, the teacher replied: “I don’t believe it, because the people who truly understand these questions can be counted, even in this great city of more than a million inhabitants, on a single finger.” He soon realizes that he is saying something other than what he apparently meant and corrects himself: “Excuse me, not with a finger, but with the fingers of one hand.”

At first glance, the indignant professor simply exchanged a couple of words and said something meaningless. But, as we look more closely, we may realize that Your mistake does make sense, even if it is hidden. His words imply that “only one of the fingers (assistants) understood.” Or perhaps, that “only one of the fingers was able to count and define who understood and who did not.”

That’s how he is language of the unconscious: encryption. It is not given in a reasonable way, but in terms of the absurd. It always demands an interpretation to be understood. “The unconscious betrays us,” it is popularly said. However, in reality, exactly the opposite occurs:The unconscious is loyal to what we really think or feel.

Olympic lapses

Various types of mistakes are grouped under the name of lapses.: oral or lapsus linguae (when one word is said for another), in writing (when something different is written than what was intended), in reading (when reading something different from what is written), and false hearing (when you hear something different from what has been said).

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Millions of people have witnessed memorable slips of the tongue, like that of George Busch when he said: “Our enemies are innovative and resourceful, and so are we. They never stop thinking of new methods to harm our country and our people, and neither do we.”

The slip of José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero, former president of the Spanish Government, also went around the world, speaking about a trade agreement to promote tourism, he said: “An agreement to stimulate, to favor, to fuck”…

Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos wanted to say that citizens had voted in favor of re-election, but instead said: “That does not invalidate the number of votes that were cast.” in favor of corruption”. The presidential candidate Alfredo Pérez Rubacalba stated: “Now, I do tell you that if I govern, you will have unemployment…”. She evidently meant the opposite.

Chilean deputy Pepe Auth was going to mention Jacqueline Van Rysselberghe, but he mispronounced her last name and instead said: “Jacqueline Van Rysselberga“. Fortunately, this lapse proved that the deputy has a great sense of humor.

In short, no one is immune from lapses. Now, is everything as innocent as it seems?

Everyday mistakes

Everyday life is full of small clumsinesses, which are barely given importance. Taking the wrong bus route, forgetting the name of a person we talk to every day, completely not knowing where the keys went to enter the house…

These apparently insignificant mistakes, which for a long time went unnoticed by positivist scientists, took on a different weight within the framework of psychoanalysis.

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It is not that these errors are excessively relevant on their own. On the contrary, they represent a gateway to broader phenomena. The lapses reveal a conflict between two forces that are in tension in a person. One of them is conscious (what one wants to say or do). The other is unconscious (what you really think or feel about something, but is repressed for various reasons).

Slips, like so many other expressions of the unconscious, cause hilarity. But beyond their anecdotal function, they constitute an excellent way to recognize those areas of ourselves that, otherwise, would remain in the dark.

Finally, in the words of the father of psychoanalysis, Sigmund Freud:

“One is the owner of what one is silent and a slave of what one speaks.” “We are not always free from making the same mistakes that we laugh at others about”