a Freudian slip is an error in speech memory or action that is believed to reveal subconscious thoughts or feelings named after Sigman Freud the father of psychoanalysis these slips were introduced in his book The Psychopathology of everyday life published in 1901 he believed that these slips are meaningful and can provide insight into a person's true feelings or unresolved issues According to Freud our minds consist of the conscious preconscious and unconscious the conscious mind holds what we're aware of at any given moment the preconscious includes things we could become aware of if we think about them the unconscious contains thoughts memories and desires that are outside of our conscious awareness but influence our Behavior Freudian slips occur when the unconscious mind inadvertently reveals itself in our speech actions or even memory lapses these slips happen because our unconscious mind is always at work often conflicting with our conscious intentions for instance if someone is harboring hidden feelings of anger towards a friend but consciously wants to maintain a polite demeanor they might accidentally say something harsh or revealing Freud argued that these slips are a way for repressed thoughts and desires to break free and surface into the conscious mind imagine someone at a wedding who says I'm so glad to see you all gathered here to celebrate this awful uh wonderful day the slip from wonderful to Awful might suggest hidden feelings of anxiety or disapproval about the event another example is a person mistakenly dialing their ex- partner's number instead of their current Partners when feeling nostalgic or unresolved about the past relationship or consider someone forgetting a scheduled meeting with someone they dislike which could be an unconscious expression of their desire to avoid that person while Freud's theory of slips has its supporters it has also faced significant criticism critics argue that not all slips have deep psychological meanings and that many errors are simply random or due to cognitive processes like memory lapses or attention failures modern psychology often attributes these slips to the brain's complex network of thoughts and associations rather than repressed desires moreover the scientific rigor of Freud's work is frequently questioned his theories are based on case studies rather than Empirical research making them difficult to test and validate scientifically cognitive psychologists suggest that many speech errors are due to the brain's normal language processing mechanisms not necessarily unconscious conflicts