After all, what are failed acts What is the concept or meaning of failed acts in the Psychoanalytic view? What examples can we think of to understand this theme more clearly? For Freud, access to the unconscious is labyrinthine, it is only accessible through errors, lapses, distractions. Therefore, we must know the concept of flawed acts Are you curious? Read on and find out all about the flawed acts!

The human mind is very protective

It is very interesting to find out that when we are failing, we are actually getting it right. To find out that our mind acts so protectively towards us is something amazing!

We can understand why a wife insists on calling her current spouse by her ex-husband's name, for example, even though she tells her current spouse that she has forgotten her former partner. For, certainly, the object of the fallacious acts is in our unconscious .

The flawed act arises from a truth installed in the unconscious

Let's look at an example: a person loses her pet dog, but this dog was very naughty and disobedient, and she always complained that he was like that. She loved him very much. Unhappy, she says she doesn't want another dog so that she won't get attached and suffer again. However, a few days go by and she gets another dog from someone who tries to comfort her for the loss of the other one.

She is happy to have a new little friend and immediately gives him a new name. But she makes a mistake, calling him by the name of the one already dead . The new puppy is more obedient and even trained, but she complains about him. In other words, she did not want a new puppy because she had not yet gotten over the loss of the other one.

So she always calls the new puppy by the name of the old one, because she actually wanted that puppy to be the one that died, and so she treats it by picking on it too, as if it were the other one even though the new one is more behaved.

Another example is when, even though we mean (or write) word x, we speak and write word y. It may not make sense consciously, but unconsciously there is something to be exposed.

The 4 types of flawed acts according to Freud

Freud considers that there are four different types of failure acts:

• Language lapses For example, when a person exchanges one person's name for another's name.
• Forgetfulness : forgetting proper names, words from other languages, word sequences, impressions, intentions, childhood memories or cover-up memories, and forgetfulness that causes misplacements or losses.
• Mistakes in action : they seem to be acts caused by clumsy or accidental attitudes, but they may indicate an unconscious justification. E.g.: when an object is involuntarily broken.
• Error Examples of errors according to psychoanalysis are memory lapses or illusions of memory, in which the person has full conviction that a fact happened, when in fact it was a creation or distortion of memory.

A misstep can be the key to a hit

So, we can say that the same happens to people who marry for a second time, without having recovered or forgotten the past. When she repeats the name of the former spouse, it is a mistake, but one that can be the solution to many issues in her life, if observed this "right" flaw.

Certainly, the past can no longer be corrected, but we can and must try to correct the present, because our future depends on it. It is great to see how a failure can be the key to a right one.

In this way, we can also find the solution for that couple who is always fighting because his wife always forgets to buy the things he likes to eat or forgets to iron the clothes he will wear the next day.

She cannot remember her husband's things, because they are important to him, and not to her. In other words, since these things are not her responsibility, there is no reason for her to worry. It is up to him to take care of his own things.

Significant Failures

So, now that it has detected the flaw, it can then become a hit Discovering that the failed acts are actually right makes all the difference. Instead of blaming ourselves for the failures we commit, we will find a key to this failed act. We will then have the solution to our family, professional, and social problems.

It is as Freud said: " such errors are not just errors, they are not meaningless failures If we investigate why they happen, we will see that - from another point of view - the mistake is a hit ".

We can see, then, that faulty acts are, in fact, unconscious desires, and that if we pay attention to them, we will find the solution to many problems.

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If it weren't for Freud making this fantastic discovery, perhaps many would be living oppressed and anguished with these flawed acts, without even knowing or imagining that they would be the way out of the mess in our unconscious.

The acts of failure will show the desires repressed in the unconscious

In short, we can affirm without fear that the failed acts will be our successes or are our successes, that the search to find the solution to many problems is observe and pay attention for our flawed acts.

That is, an unbearable content, because it brings painful memories, is "hidden" in our unconscious, by mechanism of recalcitrance or recalcitrance It only reveals itself in the form of symptoms, such as disorders, phobias, dreams, jokes, and failure acts.

These acts are the key to many issues that have remained unresolved within us, which we often try to mask in some way, trying to prove to ourselves that everything is okay.

But, if we pay attention to the faulty acts, they will reveal us and certainly tell us that all is not well. It is necessary to pay attention to the faulty acts, because from them will come the necessary adjustments and corrections.

Conclusion

Our unconscious has much to reveal to us, even that which insists on remaining hidden there. And if it weren't for the failed acts, perhaps we wouldn't be able to discover it and solve small problems that can also become giants.

Anyway, long live the failed acts that lead us to the right ones!

If you are interested in psychoanalysis and dream of becoming a psychoanalyst, you should know that failure acts are only one of the resources the analyst has at his disposal. To do the Complete Training Course in Clinical Psychoanalysis (100% On-line, open enrollment) allows us to know other techniques, such as the interpretation of dreams, chistes, lapses and fixed ideas, among other examples that reveal what our unconscious carries. Don't miss this opportunity and register now!

This summary about failed acts was created by Ana L. Guimarães, under revision and expansion by Paulo Vieira (content manager of Psychoanalysis Clinic blog). Leave your comment, doubt, criticism or suggestion below.