I am angry at my wife or daughter, and I am thinking quite unhusbandly or unfatherly thoughts. A few moments later I accidentally collide with a piece of furniture and sustain a painful bruise. Freud...

I am angry at my wife or daughter, and I am thinking quite unhusbandly or unfatherly thoughts. A few moments later I accidentally collide with a piece of furniture and sustain a painful bruise. Freud would argue that this is no accident; I am relieving my guilt over my hostile thoughts by punishing myself. He would also contend that this parapraxis indicates an underlying confl ict, possibly the obvious one between love and anger toward my family and perhaps some deeper and more complicated ones as well. (Recall that the causes of behavior are usually overdetermined.) In this case, I’d be inclined to agree with him.