Freud’s Thoughts on Language 1
A Prior Viewpoint – Meringer and Mayer’s “Psychic Value of Phonetics” (1895)
 M&M (philologists) argued for a sort of “domino” mechanism in speaking: As soon as we produce the
first syllable of a word, or the first word of a sentence, this immediately triggers the next syllable or
word, and so on.
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Mistakes occur when one sound is either triggered early (a “fore-sound”) or continues echoing.
 “the shoes made her sorft” = “the shoes made her feet sore” (anticipation)
 “I will soon him home” = “I will soon go home and I will see him” (contamination)

According to this argument, the first word/syllable/phrase is the most important. Does this seem too
simplistic? Freud thought so. . . .
Freud’s Critique – Two Categories of Speech Mistakes
 Freud had problems with M&M’s model. Lots of speech mistakes do not seem to be based on similarity
of sounds. Freud gives 30+ examples. Here are two of my favorites:
 A patient remarked only seeing her uncle “in flagranti.”, when she meant “en passant.”
It later turned out that the uncle had exposed himself to her as a child. (p. 83)

A doctor was visiting a wealthy patient who was suffering from a long illness. Despite
outwardly claiming to have his patients’ interest in mind, the doctor remarked, “ . . . I
hope you will not soon leave your bed” (p.88),
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In response, Freud proposes two distinct categories of speech mistakes:
1) based on other parts of the intended speech (i.e., fore-sounds and echoes)
2) based on unintended influence of other words, sentences, contexts, or thoughts.
 Among the examples of the mistakes collected by me [I find few to attribute] solely to
… “contact effect of sound.” Almost invariable I discover besides this a disturbing
influence of something outside the intended speech. The disturbing element is either a
single unconscious thought, which comes to light through the special blunder, and can
be brought to consciousness through a searching analysis, or it is a general psychic
motive, which directs against the entire speech. – Freud (1901; p. 80).

Wundt proposes that speech mistakes (in either category) are linked to two processes:
1) a positive factor, the “uninhibited stream of associations” stimulated by speech
2) a negative factor, relaxing or suppressing the inhibition of this stream.
Freud argues that these two “regularly attain synchronous action,” and are both part of the same process.
Reading and Writing (Chapter 6)
 Freud also proposes that the same processes underlie mistakes in reading and writing, given the “inner
relation of these functions.”
 A woman who is anxious to have children always reads “storks” instead of “socks.”


1
During a long gap between patients, Freud write the wrong date down; the date he
writes is the date of his next scheduled patient.
Are these really the same process? What do we know now about speech production vs. understanding?
Are they more similar than scientists think, or was Freud just wrong?
Freud, S. (1901/1914). Mistakes in speech. In Psychopathology of everyday life, Ch. 5. (trans A.A. Brill) New York:
Basic Books.