How to Catch a Freudian Slip

1. Understand The Concept of the Freudian Slip
A Freudian slip ifs often known as a "slip of the tongue" in which a mistake in speech reveals something of the nature of the speaker's unconscious or semi-conscious desires. However, the desire need not be specifically sexual, and the Freudian slip need not be a slip of the tongue - it may be an obvious misinterpretation such as reading a word incorrectly (as if one real word were another equally real word that differs in meaning) or maybe even hearing a word incorrectly.

2. See The Mechanism at Work
The idea behind the Freudian slip is something that now might be considered pop psychology. The references in pop music, television, and movies to people only "hearing what they want to hear" and "seeing what they want to see" are protean and admit to an affinity with the Freudian slip. There are also blatant Freudian slips (of the tongue) plugged into sitcoms and other comedies. Similarly to seeing what we want to see and hearing what we want to hear, sometimes we say what we want to say or say what we wish were true (without necessarily knowing that's what we wanted to say)!

The Freudian aspect is that repressed desires from the id (unconscious energies) burst to the surface without necessarily being endorsed by the superego (our sense of social norms).

3. Examples of Freudian Slips
If a woman is looking at your rock collection and upon viewing your prized rose quartz remarks "nice cock . . . I . . .I mean rock" - that might be a Freudian slip!

Okay, so I had to give an adolescent example. A more subtle example might be a person saying to an effeminate man, "Wow! your house is so queen! I m-m-m-ean clean!".

Still more subtly would be a person who is uneasy about an appointment that's scheduled for Tuesday and "accidentally" says to the person with whom the appointment is scheduled "okay, I'll be there Wednesday", perhaps meaning that he/she wishes the appointment were scheduled later or even that he/she wishes to miss the meeting entirely.

As go Freudian slips that aren't slips of the tongue or speech, a guy might read a dating personals ad stating "I like men with lots of hair" as if it read "I like men who've lost their hair". In this case, perhaps the man is bald.

Similarly, one might even type or write the "wrong" word while working on an article, e-mailing, or instant messaging.

4. Apply Your Skills With Freudian Slips
As with the advice I give on most psychological topics, address yourself first! When you make a slip of the tongue or an error of gross misinterpretation (such as with the personals ad example), ask yourself if there might be something deeper to it, or if it's just a silly mistake that's trivial. In fact, ask a friend about your own slips, since after all, we're dealing here with topics that we may not want to acknowledge to ourselves!

Then work on applying to other people your keenness regarding Freudian slips.

Warnings

• Pointing out Freudian slips in company, whether they're "true" or not, can be great fun for all (you can be the comedian and the clever one all in one package), but beware also of being tactful, as addressed in the bottom warning.
• Remember that the notion of just how slips work as being of Freudian origins is Freud's theory, but not everyone's theory. As such, it's to be viewed critically rather than as gospel.
• Be careful with your new powers that you are considerate of others. In other words, be cognizant of when you might hurt certain persons or embarrass them by "calling them out" for Freudian slips.