Freudian Slips - A Modern Topic

Sigmund Freud's work has been influential since the first day it was published. It has changed the way humans look at their own mind and how we study psychology. Today, many ideas from Freud are still being used and are still prevalent. We read Freud to understand the base of today's view of psychology and how this topic came to be. 


One topic, that is widely seen today, studied by Freud is parapraxis, or Freudian slips. A Freudian slip is, "an error in speech, memory, or physical action that is interpreted as occurring due to the interference of some unconscious, subdued wish, conflict, or train of thought" (dictionary.com). 
George H. W. Bush made a classic Freudian slip in a speech given referencing to Ronald Reagan. He said, "For seven and a half years I've worked alongside President Reagan, and I'm proud to have been his partner. We've had triumphs. We've made some mistakes. We've had some sex -- setbacks." When Bush said this, it was an error in his speech and probably not a subdued wish, but a mistake in letters that led to a wrong word. Freud would have called this deletion, which is omitting a word or part of a word. Although this mistake was psychologically meaningless, this is not always the case. Freud was interested in the cases where it was meaningful.This can be seen in the show "Friends" when Ross calls his soon to be wife, Emily, "Rachel." Freud would see this and claim that Ross is thinking about Rachel at his wedding with another woman, and he could say that Ross is regretting not marrying Rachel. Because they are at their wedding and not just a normal setting, this is very significant. Freud claims that the ideas that cause the "slips" are held in one's subconscious and come to the forefront of the mind because of a certain event, or even by coincidence. Ross using Rachel's name shows his thought of her in his subconscious during his wedding with Emily.Another interesting topic of modern day that relates to Freudian slips is autocorrect on cell phones (particularly iPhones). The autocorrect function on an iPhone has been known to create funny and embarrassing mistakes, after someone has made a mistake of their own. These mistakes can lead to bigger problems, and are modern day Freudian slips.One would argue that no Freudian slip is just an accident, and that everything that we say/write/text is a part of our mind for some reason. While some slips are not major, others can be crucial and can make or break someone. TV reporters can be fired for making a mistake on air, and political candidates are highly scrutinized if they say something wrong in public. Freud is very important to today's study of psychology. His ideas provided a backbone to modern day psychoanalysis, even if they were extreme. Although Freud was incorrect on various thoughts, he was the first to come out and share his beliefs on psychology and the human mind. Everyone should read Freud to have a basic understanding on what psychology is and have a perspective on looking at the human mind in a scientific way.