WHAT IS A FAILED ACT? (LAPSES) TYPES AND MEANING - PSYCHOLOGY - 2024

The failed act or lapsus is considered from psychoanalysis as a production of the unconscious, a means, a channel or way through which it can express itself. It is the means through which the unconscious manages to reveal the desires that are deposited in it.

Failed acts are also known as lapses, failed operations, slips in speech and / or memory; Errors that cannot be explained by the person who made them, since many times the person is not aware of what has happened.

Those who do perceive it may wonder about it, but they do not find a logical reason to explain it. This is because the origin of the failed acts comes from the unconscious and, all the content housed there, operates as something inexplicable and contradictory for the consciousness.

It is through psychoanalysis and its technique of free association, a fundamental rule of this discipline, through which the subject is invited to say everything that passes through his mind as it manifests, that light can be shed on what that unconscious truth, manifested in the failed act, may gain real meaning for the conscience.

Origin of the term

The term failed act was introduced by Sigmund Freud (1856-1939), an Austrian doctor, considered for his knowledge and the works he has written throughout his life, as the father of psychoanalysis.

Freud conceptualized the failed act as a manifestation, a saying of the unconscious that conflicts with the conscious intention of the subject, thus generating the symptom. It is through this failed act that an unconscious desire emerges in consciousness.

Freud considers that the failed acts are psychic acts, which are carriers of meaning and are intimately connected with two opposing intentions, the conscious and the unconscious.

What is the origin of the failed acts?

A desire or intention of the unconscious that has found, through the failed act, a way to communicate. In this way betraying the conscience that, in its presence, is confused or disconcerted.

It is then that the subject can meet his own unconscious desire through a failed act. Without knowing anything about it, since his conscious intention had nothing to do with what happened.

What happens is that in reality, that intention is proper to the subject but they appear in principle as hidden from him. It is in this way that failed acts are manifested as the result of an intentional action of the unconscious, presenting themselves spontaneously and without being controlled by their own will.

That is why lapses are also often called involuntary acts. Since it is not a will from consciousness that operates at the time of its appearance, but an unconscious intention.

This, which appears as a contradiction or conflict between the will of these two psychic instances such as consciousness and the unconscious, also presents a dichotomy in its definition, since the failed act is actually an achievement.

Wishes of the unconscious

This can be understood as the manifestation of a desire lodged in the unconscious, which has overcome the barriers of consciousness, emerging in it. That is, through the failed act, a desire of its own, unconscious in nature, is manifesting.

These desires have been lodged in the unconscious since they have been repressed because their nature breaks with the moral of the subject. Being intimately linked with sexual feelings or desires. The content of that desire is rejected by consciousness and is thus lodged in the unconscious.

Through repression, understood as a psychic defense mechanism, which operates at an unconscious level, and has the ultimate goal of rejecting something from consciousness, the subject manages to avoid reliving or remembering unpleasant traumatic situations or those that generate displeasure. The failed act would then be the return of that repressed that bursts into consciousness.

The reasons for which the mechanism of repression is set in motion are diverse, but its objective is always the same, to avoid the appearance of feelings such as anguish, fear, guilt or shame among others, in the consciousness of the subject in order to avoid displeasure.

This psychic mechanism is not perfect and therefore can fail in its work. The result of this is the genesis of a failed act.

Types of failed acts

There are many and diverse ways that people can commit a failed act. These are present in the daily life of all people and there are as many ways of revealing themselves as there are different personalities, ways of speaking, acting and being.

This classification refers to the different ways in which these acts can be presented:

Verbal manifestations

They refer to expressions produced in speech, of which the subject may or may not become aware at the time they are put into play.

• Say the opposite of what was meant, represented by the expression contrary to the intention of the subject.

• Pronunciation errors, being able to even say a non-existent word thus creating a neologism.

• Word replacement, when a certain word is meant and it is replaced by another.

• Say what was not consciously meant.

Manifestations in reading and writing

Represented by errors when reading and / or writing. These mistakes can be revealed in conjunction with verbal manifestations.

It may happen that when reading aloud, the subject exchanges one word for another, mispronounces a word or creates a neologism product of the intention to read the correct word in combination of a word associated with a thought.

Or at the time of writing, a thought breaks into consciousness and the subject writes a word related to it instead of what he wanted and / or should write.

Manifestations in hearing

They refer to hearing something different from what has been said, not having this to do with hearing or hearing problems, but rather having believed to hear something different from what the other person has said.

It often happens that the person is convinced that they have heard something that has nothing to do with what that other has said. Or, consciously trying to associate what you heard with what that other person said, give up the attempt.

Manifestations in memory, oblivion

This type of manifestation is related to blackouts, not remembering. Taking into account that what is forgotten is that which is lodged in the unconscious, but having been conscious at a previous moment.

They may forget proper names, dates, events, words, events or quotes, facts or situations. This type of forgetfulness has a momentary and transitory nature, not being permanent.

Demonstrations in acts

Intimately linked with the loss of objects. This type of failed expression is also conjugated with the previous manifestations, since an action is the consequence of at least one thought.

And it is in these where the conflict is presented in the first place, manifested or exposed by means of the action or the failed act.

In this way, it is how the unconscious comes to say something, through its own productions, revealing the existence of a hidden thought, intelligible to the naked eye by the subject, but full of meaning.

What is the meaning of failed acts?

The failed act has a particular significance. It has a purpose or sense of its own. A specific goal, a specific intention, and a singular meaning. As such, it pursues its own goal by externalizing content, which appears without being able to be deciphered by the speaking subject.

Who has found himself facing the performance of an action in principle, meaningless for him. Being this action that breaks into his consciousness, the replacement of the action expected or attempted by said subject.

There are different ways to respond to the question about the meaning of the failed act involved. Some people immediately link it to some thoughts they have previously had, thus trying to make sense of the failed act. Others try to establish hypotheses about why, inferring associations between the circumstances and the thoughts developed.

Some simply do not be anotician about what happened and consequently do not wonder about it. But there are also those who deny what happened. They even seem to get angry at it, taking a strong vested interest in making the failed act meaningless.

It is that negation operates in them, also understood as an unconscious defense mechanism, in order to defend itself from any possible association with that memory, thought or event unpleasant for the subject, who unconsciously seems to begin to shed light on that possible link.

Now, the failed act is not the result of chance, but has an unequivocal meaning. Regardless of the means or form of manifestation, its purpose is unique and true.

Bursting into consciousness with a truth about which the subject wants nothing to know. For it is the result of an unconscious manifestation that makes its way into consciousness, creating a conflict between both psychic instances due to the confrontation of two different purposes, thus giving rise to a new meaning.

It is then that failed acts, as formations of the unconscious, come to reveal their own truth. It is the unconscious itself that takes the floor, and makes its way to say, finding in the failed act a way, a way, a channel to express itself to communicate.

What do the failed acts say?

The failed acts are a saying of the unconscious that comes to reveal a knowledge and a truth that are ignored by the subject. Since this truth has been repressed, it is through the failed act as a means of expression that it confronts the conscience and confronts the subject with a knowledge of which he wants to know nothing.

Thus becoming the equivalent of a symptom by the formation of a compromise between the subject's conscious intention and his unconscious desire, which has been repressed and appears transformed into consciousness through the presence of the failed act. This is then understood as a symptom, and as such, a concealed realization of unconscious desires.

Now, the presence of the analyst is necessary, who from his practice, through analysis, will be able to help the subject to make understandable all that until then ignored by him.

It is through the patient-analyst dyad that the conflict between consciousness and what is repressed in the unconscious can be resolved, being able to answer what the failed act came to say.

The only possible way to know our unconscious desires is psychoanalysis. Which, through the analysis and interpretation of the words present in the subject's speech, manages to solve the psychic mysteries hidden behind the physical symptoms.

Working with the meaning of the unconscious processes that are behind them and being able to establish their relationship with the life of the subject in question.

Here is the importance of listening to the failed act, because they have something to say. They come to provide information about our unconscious desires.

References

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