Sigmund Freud\'s Bungled Actions Theory.

¶ … Sigmund Freud's bungled actions theory. The writer explores the basis for the theory and uses several examples to illustrate how Freud believed it worked. There was one source used to complete this paper.

BUNGLED ACTIONS AND THEIR MEANINGS

Though the field of mental health is still in its relative infancy much progress has been made in the quest to understand the human mind and its workings. Sigmund Freud has been called the "Father of Psychology" for many years because of the foundation that he provided for the field. While many of his ideas have since been challenged his basic beliefs and ideas have been studied and respected and remain so to this day. One of the things that he developed was the theory of bungled actions. According to Freud everything that a person does has a meaning (Freud, 1960). Whether it is the desire to have sexual relations with one's parent, the inability to love because of problems with one of the egos or the accident that is not really an accident, Freud assigned hidden subconscious meaning to everything that happens. His theory of bungled actions explains his belief about the foundation or underlying cause of accidents including car wrecks, suicide by accident and other breaking and self-injuring behaviors.

WHAT IT IS Before one can begin to understand the many underlying and sublimely underpinnings of bungled actions as Freud understood them it is important that one first have a basic grasp and understanding of the theory itself.

Freud developed the theory of Bungled Actions as a method to explain when things happen that seem to be accidental but play right into what that person desires at the time. The desire may not even be a conscious or purposeful event, but can be something that is desired in the subconscious and the accident or bungled action provides a means to get that desire accomplished.

In analyzing Freud or any of his works the basic concept of his theory of bungled actions is his belief that there is no such thing as an accident. Freud did not believe there were accidents anymore than he believed slips of the tongue were merely coincidental.

Freud believes that everything that a person does serves a purpose or has some type of meaning or hidden need to accomplish an objective. Whether it is the desire to end one's life by accident so that it does not feel or look like a suicide, or it is the desire to hurt someone else by breaking their prized possessions by accident, everything that a person does traces back to the a desire to accomplish some goal according to Freud (Freud, 1960).

Few people have failed to hear at least once the term "Freudian Slip." This term is used when a person accidentally says what they really mean instead of what they mean to say. For example if a person said by accident "I wouldn't hesitate to marry her" when the proper comment for the conversation was "I wouldn't hesitate to work with her" Freud would conclude that the person speaking is secretly, maybe even unconsciously in love with the person he speaks of. As he started to say he would not hesitate to work with that person his true feelings came out and he spoke of his desire to marry her instead.

Bungled actions are similar to slips of the tongue however, they deal with actions not words which can have a more permanent impact.

Freud believed that bungled actions were like other life errors in that they are used to create or fulfill wishes that one should deny oneself. It is the basis for accidental deaths in traffic in which examination uncovers the fact that the dead person had been severely depressed and perhaps wishing he could die (Freud, 1960).

Another less severe example is one in which someone decides the proper thing to do is go visit a sick relative. However, thy have worked hard all week, they do not particularly care for this relative and they would much rather spend the day at home watching the ball game. Instead of canceling the visit, the person grudgingly gets ready to go and at the train station accidentally gets on the train that takes home back home instead of the one that takes him to the relative's house. This in Freud's mind would be a bundled action because the person did not feel comfortable canceling so instead his subconscious took over and provided a way for him to get out of going by doing what he secretly wanted to do in the first place, which was to remain at home.

Accidental self-injury has long been attributed to the theory of bungled actions. If a person gets into a car accident and is killed or almost killed one may later discover that the person in the wreck was depressed and was facing a court date, or a divorce or financial ruin. The accident in the car according to Freud would not be an accident at all but would instead be the person's unconscious desire to escape the reality of what was about to happen in his or her life by ending that life (Freud, 1960).

In an accident where the person in question doesn't necessarily harm himself but instead harms others it could be a repressed desire to harm someone they know.

For instance, if a man gets into a fist fight with a driver on the road who he accuses of cutting him off at the red light, it could really be that the person in question was angry with his brother and wanted to hit him, however, he could not bring himself to hit a loved one so at the first opportunity he got into a fist fight and hit the brother through the hitting of the other driver on the road.

This would be another example of Freud's bungled actions theory.

Freud's theory actually points to a hidden unconscious world of repressed desires and motives for everything that occurs.

If bungled actions is factual every accident that occurs is actually not an accident but an attempt to complete something the person feels is wrong to want to do.

Repressed urges can include the desire to have sex with someone outside of appropriate circles, the desire to hurt others, the desire to embarrass others or many other actions in which polite society would frown upon. Freud believed that everybody has desires or urges that society would considerer wrong and the mind forces those desires and urges to the back of the brain where they lay hidden. However, according to Freud's theories including the theory of bungled actions, each of those desires has the ability to show itself if the right circumstances occur and the person can bring it forth through a slip of the tongue or an seemingly harmless accident.