Why do we forget a person's name? Why do we think we know someone when we have never seen them before? Why do we mistakenly call someone by another person's name? Why do we sometimes say something different from what we intend when we speak?
Why do we forget something that happened yesterday, while remembering something seemingly insignificant that happened ten years ago? Why do we misread a word or substitute one word for another, and why does even a single letter shift during the writing of a word completely change its meaning?
Why do we grab an object that we do not want instead of the one we do want? Why do we place objects in positions intended for other objects?
With all these and countless other examples, through misdeeds, slips, mistakes, forgetfulness, and errors of daily life, which, however harmless and amusing they may usually be, hide a deeper meaning of great psychological significance, Freud addresses in this book, which is his most popular, widely distributed, and widely read book in the world.
Psychoanalysis here celebrates, in a popularized form, its most impressive application to everyday experiences, in which every person can easily recognize themselves.
[Excerpt from the text on the back cover of the edition]
