a-general-introduction-to-psychoanalysis-sigmund-freud

question—does not explain the effect produced by the slip—the phenomenon
in its psychological aspect remains an accident, even if its physiological
explanation has been found. When it happens that I commit a slip of the
tongue, I could obviously make any one of an infinite number of slips, and in
place of the one right word say any one of a thousand others, make
innumerable distortions of the right word. Now, is there anything which forces
upon me in a specific instance just this one special slip out of all those which
are possible, or does that remain accidental and arbitrary, and can nothing
rational be found in answer to this question?
Two authors, Meringer and Mayer (a philologist and a psychiatrist) did indeed
in 1895 make the attempt to approach the problem of slips of the tongue
from this side. They collected examples and first treated them from a purely
descriptive standpoint. That, of course, does not yet furnish any explanation,
but may open the way to one. They differentiated the distortions which the
intended phrase suffered through the slip, into: interchanges of positions of
words, interchanges of parts of words, perseverations, compoundings and
substitutions. I will give you examples of these authors' main categories. It is
a case of interchange of the first sort if someone says "the Milo of Venus"
instead of "the Venus of Milo." An example of the second type of interchange,
"I had a blush of rood to the head" instead of "rush of blood"; a perseveration
would be the familiar misplaced toast, "I ask you to join me in hiccoughing
the health of our chief."[3] These three forms of slips are not very frequent.
You will find those cases much more frequent in which the slip results from a
drawing together or compounding of syllables; for example, a gentleman on
the street addresses a lady with the words, "If you will allow me, madame, I
should be very glad to inscort you."[4] In the compounded word there is
obviously besides the word "escort," also the word "insult" (and
parenthetically we may remark that the young man will not find much favor
with the lady). As an example of the substitution, Meringer and Mayer cite the
following: "A man says, 'I put the specimens in the letterbox,' instead of 'in
the hot-bed,' and the like."[5]
The explanation which the two authors attempt to formulate on the basis of
this collection of examples is peculiarly inadequate. They hold that the sounds
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