Interrupting Everyday Life: Socio-cultural origins of the Freudian slip

The Freudian slip has become a key reference point for our contemporary understanding of the human psyche. An underlying urge makes its way to the surface, interrupting a conversation and exposing our hidden desires. While there is an extended body of research addressing these so-called psychic mechanisms, little attention has been devoted to the actual moment of embarrassment that takes place: the moment in which the slip occurs, and the distinct socio-cultural moment that shapes Freud's case studies. For Freud himself, the context is fin de siècle Vienna, a period labelled as a version of modernity caught in the tension between cultural productivity and interpersonal alienation. The first recorded occurrence of the Freudian slip was when Freud himself suffered the unfathomable humiliation of not remembering the name of the painter Signorelli, thus embarking on a complex explanation of the various unconscious mechanisms at play. In ‘Interrupting everyday life: The socio-cultural dimension of the Freudian slip’, Ruth Schor revisits these early case studies with the help of an iconic guidebook, revealing a telling first account of a well-known glitch as part of an indicative study of a legendary cultural milieu.