Psychopathology
of Everyday Life
Sigmund Freud (1901)
Translation by A. A. Brill (1914)
INTRODUCTION
Professor Freud developed
his system of psychoanalysis while studying the so-called borderline cases of
mental diseases, such as hysteria and compulsionneurosis. By discarding the
old methods of treatment and strictly applying himself to a study of the patient's
life he discovered that the hitherto puzzling symptoms had a definite meaning,
and that there was nothing arbitrary in any morbid manifestation. Psychoanalysis
always showed that they referred to some definite problem or conflict of the
person concerned. It was while tracing back the abnormal to the normal state
that Professor Freud found how faint the line of demarcation was between the
normal and neurotic person,and that the psychopathologic mechanisms so glaringly
observed in the psychoneuroses and psychoses could usually be demonstrated in
a lesser degree in normal persons. This led to a study of the faulty actions
of everyday life and later to the publication of the Psychopathology of Everyday
Life, a book which passed through four editions in Germany and is considered
the author's most popular work. With great ingenuity and penetration the author
throws much light on the complex problems of human behavior, and clearly demonstrates
that the hitherto considered impassable gap between normal and abnormal mental
states is more apparent than real.
This translation is made
of the fourth German edition, and while the original text was strictly followed,
linguistic difficulties often made it necessary to modify or substitute some
of the author's cases by examples comprehensible to the English-speaking reader.
New York.
A. A. Brill.