Section 2.
Task 1. The Work of Sigmund Freud.
Here is an extract from a radio talk on the work of Sigmund Freud by Professor Eric Watkis.
Sigmund Freud developed his system of psychoanalysis while he was studying cases of mental illness.
By examining details of the patient's life, he found that the illness could often be traced back to some definite problem or conflict within the person concerned.
But he discovered, too, that many of the neuroses observed in mentally ill patients were also present, to a lesser degree, in normal persons.
This led him to the realization that the borderline between the normal and the neurotic person is not nearly as clearly marked as was once believed.
In 1914, he published a book called The Psychopathology of Everyday Life.
This book goes a long way towards explaining some of the strange behaviour of normal, sane people.
A glance at Freud's chapter headings will indicate some of the aspects of behaviour covered by the book.
Forgetting of proper names, forgetting of foreign words, childhood and concealing memories, mistakes in speech, mistakes in reading and writing.
Broadly, Freud demonstrates that there are good reasons for many of the slips and errors that we make.
We forget a name because, unconsciously, we do not wish to remember that name.
We repress a childhood memory because that memory is painful to us.
A slip of the tongue or of the pen betrays a wish or a thought of which we are ashamed.
In these days when every would-be-doctor or writer has access to Freud's accounts of his research,
it is worth pausing and remembering the remarkable scope and originality of his ideas.