Psychopathology of Everyday Life

Book may have numerous typos, missing text, images, or index. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. 1914. Excerpt: ... DETERMINISM-CHANCE--AND SUPERSTITIOUS BELIEFS XII DETERMINISM--CHANCE-AND SUPERSTITIOUS BELIEFS Points Of View. As the general result of the preceding separate discussions we must put down the following principle: Certain inadequacies of our psychic capacities--whose common character will soon be more definitely determined--and certain performances which are apparently unintentional prove to be well motivated when subjected to the psychoanalytic investigation, and are determined through the consciousness of unknown motives. In order to belong to this class of phenomena thus explained a faulty psychic action must satisfy the following conditions :-- (a) It must not exceed a certain measure, which is firmly established through our estimation, and is designated by the expression " within normal limits." (b) It must evince the character of the momentary and temporary disturbance. The same action must have been previously performed more correctly or we must always rely on ourselves to perform it more correctly; if we are corrected by others we must immediately recognize the truth of the correction and the incorrectness of our psychic action. (c) If we at all perceive a faulty action, we must not perceive in ourselves any motivation of the same, but must attempt to explain it through "inattention" or attribute it to an "accident." Thus there remain in this group the cases of forgetting and the errors, despite better knowledge, the lapses in speaking, reading, writing, the erroneously carried-out actions, and the socalled chance actions. The explanations of these so definite psychic processes are connected with a series of observations which may in part arouse further interest. I. By abandoning a part of our psychic capacity as unexplainable through purposive ideas we ignore the realms of ...