Freudian slip
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The Freudian slip is named after Sigmund Freud, who described the phenomenon he called faulty action (Fehlleistung or parapraxis) in his 1901 book The Psychopathology of Everyday Life.
The Freudian slip is an error in human action, speech or memory that is believed to be caused by the unconscious mind. Some errors, such as a woman accidentally calling her husband with another man's name, seem to represent relatively clear cases of Freudian slips. In other cases, the error might appear to be trivial, bizarre or even nonsensical, but shows some deeper significance on analysis. Freud gives several such examples in Psychopathology; the analysis is often quite lengthy and complex, as was the case with many of the dreams in 'The Interpretation of Dreams.
Popularization of the term has diluted its technical meaning in some contexts to include any slip-of-the-tongue phenomenon, often in an attempt by the user to humorously assign hidden motives or sexual innuendo to the mistake. It is not clear, however, what Freud considered an "innocent" mistake, or if he thought that there were any innocent mistakes. The enormous quantity of slips analyzed in Psychopathology, many of which are banal or apparently trivial, would seem to indicate that Freud felt almost any seemingly tiny slip or hesitation would respond to analysis. Although the phrase "sometimes a cigar is just a cigar" is often attributed to him (meaning that some mistakes are innocent, that some putative phallic symbols are not actually phallic symbols), it does not appear in any of his writings, and may very well be apocryphal.
Common Joke
Two psychiatrists are discussing their weekends over drinks and one of them tells the other that he now believes that Freudian slips really do exist. His friend pressed him on the matter and asked what had happened.
"Well, we were having dinner and I asked my father to pass me the mashed potatoes. Somehow it came out as 'why did you ruin my life, you sonofabitch?'"de:Freudscher Versprecher he:טעות פרוידיאנית it:Lapsus freudiano nl:Freudiaanse verspreking pl:Freudowska pomyłka