Psychopathology of Everyday Life

In this classic work the author turns his psychoanalytic lens toward the small, seemingly harmless mistakes that pepper daily life—forgotten names, slips of the tongue, misplaced objects, and the like. By tracing each slip back to its hidden emotional source, he shows that the boundary between ordinary forgetfulness and neurotic symptom is far thinner than we tend to believe. The approach is rooted in careful case studies and a belief that even the most trivial error follows a lawful psychological pattern.

The book surveys a wide range of everyday failures, from the puzzling inability to recall a familiar name to accidental actions that betray unconscious wishes. Each chapter unpacks a specific kind of lapse, illustrating how suppressed thoughts, conflicts, or desires can surface in disguised form. Listeners are invited to reconsider their own daily blunders as clues to deeper mental life, rather than mere clumsiness.