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Informationen zum Autor Sigmund Freud Klappentext This classic edition of The Basic Writings of Sigmund Freud includes complete texts of six works that have profoundly influenced our understanding of human behavior, presented here in the translation by Dr. A. A. Brill, who for almost forty years was the standard-bearer of Freudian theories in America. • Psychopathology of Everyday Life is perhaps the most accessible of Freud's books. An intriguing introduction to psychoanalysis, it shows how subconscious motives underlie even the most ordinary mistakes we make in talking, writing, and remembering. • The Interpretation of Dreams records Freud's revolutionary inquiry into the meaning of dreams and the power of the unconscious. • Three Contributions to the Theory of Sex is the seminal work in which Freud traces the development of sexual instinct in humans from infancy to maturity. • Wit and Its Relation to the Unconscious expands on the theories Freud set forth in The Interpretation of Dreams. It demonstrates how all forms of humor attest to the fundamental orderliness of the human mind. • Totem and Taboo extends Freud's analysis of the individual psyche to society and culture. • The History of Psychoanalytic Movement makes clear the ultimate incompatibility of Freud's ideas with those of his onetime followers Adler and Jung.1 FORGETTING OF PROPER NAMES During the year 1898, I published a short essay, On the Psychic Mechanism of Forgetfullness.1 I shall now repeat its contents and take it as a starting-point for further discussion. I have there undertaken a psychologic analysis of a common case of temporary forgetfulness of proper names, and from a pregnant example of my own observation, I have reached the conclusion that this frequent and practically unimportant occurrence of a failure of a psychic function—of memory—admits an explanation which goes beyond the customary utilization of this phenomenon. If an average psychologist should be asked to explain how it happens that we often fail to recall a name which we are sure we know, he would probably content himself with the answer that proper names are more apt to be forgotten than any other content of memory. He might give plausible reasons for this “forgetting preference” for proper names, but he would not assume any deep determinant for the process. I was led to examine exhaustively the phenomenon of temporary forgetfulness through the observation of certain peculiarities, which, although not general, can, nevertheless, be seen clearly in some cases. In these, there is not only forgetfulness, but also false recollection; he who strives for the escaped name brings to consciousness others—substitutive names—which, although immediately recognized as false, nevertheless obtrude themselves with great tenacity. The process which should lead to the reproduction of the lost name is, as it were, displaced, and thus brings one to an incorrect substitute. Now it is my assumption that the displacement is not left to psychic arbitrariness, but that it follows lawful and rational paths. In other words, I assume that the substitutive name (or names) stands in direct relation to the lost name, and I hope, if I succeed in demonstrating this connection, to throw light on the origin of the forgetting of names. In the example which I selected for analysis in 1898, I vainly strove to recall the name of the master who made the imposing frescoes of the “Last Judgment” in the dome of Orvieto. Instead of the lost name—Signorelli—two other names of artists—Botticelli and Boltraffio—obtruded themselves, names which my judgment immediately and definitely rejected as being incorrect. When the correct name was imparted to me by an outsider, I recognized it at once without any hesitation. The examination of the influence and association paths which caused the displacement from Signorelli t...
