In philology, a lapsus (Latin for "lapse, slip, error") is an involuntary mistake made while writing or speaking.[D. C. Greetham, Scholarly Editing (1995)p. 452]
Investigations
In 1895 an investigation into verbal slips was undertaken by a philologist and a psychologist,
Rudolf Meringer and Karl Mayer, who collected many examples and divided them into separate types.
[S. Freud, Introductory Lectures on Psychoanalysis (PFL 1) p. 58]
Psychoanalysis
Freud was to become interested in such mistakes from 1897 onwards, developing an interpretation of slips in terms of their unconscious meaning.
[Peter Gay, Freud: A Life for our Time (1989) p. 125] Subsequently, followers of his like
Ernest Jones developed the theme of lapsus in connection with writing, typing, and misprints.
[D. C. Greetham, Theories of the Text (1999) p. 249-252]
According to Sigmund Freud's early psychoanalytic theory, a lapsus represents a bungled act that hides an Unconscious mind desire: “the phenomena can be traced back to incompletely suppressed psychical material...pushed away by consciousness”.[Freud, quoted in A. Phillips, On Flirtation (1994) p. 12]
Jacques Lacan would thoroughly endorse the Freudian interpretation of unconscious motivation in the slip, arguing that “in the lapsus it is...clear that every unsuccessful act is a successful, not to say 'well-turned', discourse”.[Jacques Lacan, Ecrits: A Selection (1997) p. 58]
In the seventies Sebastiano Timpanaro would controversially take up the question again, by offering a mechanistic explanation of all such slips, in opposition to Freud's theories.[Gay, p. 755]
Types of lapsus
In literature, a number of different types of lapsus are named depending on context:
[Freud, p. 95]
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Speech error (pl. same): slip of the tongue
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: slip of the pen
[B. A. Garner, Dictionary of Modern Legal Usage (1995) p. 499]
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: slip of the hand; a synonym for lapsus calami
-
lapsus clavis: slip of the key (implying a typewriter or computer keyboard)
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: slip of memory
Types of slips of the tongue
Slips of the tongue can happen on any level:
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Syntax — "is" instead of "was".
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Phrasal slips of tongue — "I'll explain this tornado later".
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Lexicology/semantic — "moon full" instead of "full moon".
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Morphological level — "working s paper".
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Phonological (sound slips) — "flow snurries" instead of "snow flurries".
Each of these five types of error may take various forms:
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Anticipation: An early item is corrupted by an element belonging to a later one,
[Freud, p. 58] thus "reading list" — " leading list"
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Perseveration or post-sonance: A later item is corrupted by an element belonging to an earlier one
[Greetham, Theories p. 246] Thus " waking rabbits" — "waking wabbits".
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Deletion: An element is lost, thus "same s tate" — "same sate"
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Shift or spoonerism: Moving a letter, thus "b lack foxes" — "back f loxes"
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Haplology
[This is a different phenomenon from that described in the main article on Haplology, which involves the removal of identical consecutive syllables.] or fusion: Half one word and half the other, thus "stummy" instead of "stomach or tummy"[Freud, p. 58-9]
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Pun
[B. M. Dupriez, Dictionary of Literary Devices (1991) p. 250]
Motivation
Meringer and Mayer highlighted the role of familiar associations and similarities of words and sounds in producing the lapsus. Freud objected that such factors did not cause but only "
favour slips of the tongue...in the immense majority of cases my speech is not disturbed by the circumstance that the words I am using recall others with a similar sound...or that familiar associations branch off from them (emphasis copied from original)".
[Freud, p. 73]
Timpanaro later reignited the debate,[P. Barrotta et al, Freud and Italian Culture (2009) p. 182] by maintaining that any given slip can always be explained mechanically without a need for deeper motivation.[Greetham, Theories p. 257-8]
J. L. Austin had independently seen slips not as revealing a particular complex, but as an ineluctable feature of the human condition, necessitating a continual preparation for excuses and remedial work.[Stanley Cavell, Little Did I Know (2010) p. 479]
See also
Further reading
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Sigmund Freud, The Psychopathology of Everyday Life (1965 1901)
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Jonathan Goldberg, Writing Matter (1990)
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Sebastiano Timpanaro, The Freudian Slip (1976) (translation of Il lapsus freudiano: psicanalisi e critica testuale, 1974)
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John Austin, 'A Plea for Excuses', in Philosophical Papers (1961)
External links
