Why should a slip of the tongue, a forgotten name or a misplaced object be dismissed as mere accident? Across twenty-eight lectures delivered at the University of Vienna, familiar lapses become the starting point for a searching account of unconscious purpose. Ordinary mistakes open onto a larger question: how much of mental life remains hidden from the person who thinks, speaks and acts? Arranged in three parts, the course moves from the psychopathology of everyday life to dreams and the general theory of neuroses. Its method is cumulative, using recognisable experiences to introduce unconscious thinking and wishing, repression, sexual impulses and sublimation without separating theory from clinical concerns. Dream interpretation and mental disturbance are approached as connected problems of meaning, allowing psychoanalytic theory to emerge through sustained explanation rather than a catalogue of abstract propositions. Psycho-analysis is presented here in its dual role: a means of investigating mental processes and a medical treatment for nervous disorders. The treatment model is strikingly word-based, conducted through an exchange between patient and physician, while the lectures connect that practice to the psychological foundations of psychiatry and the origins and manifestations of neuroses. By beginning with small disruptions in speech, memory and action, the work builds towards a broad account of how concealed wishes may shape experience and symptoms. This book was out of print for decades and is now republished by Alpha Editions. It has been restored for today's and future generations. This edition is not just a reprint - it's a collector's item and a cultural treasure.
