Couldn't come quick enough: Theory behind the Freudian slip is finally proven after 111 years, new research claims

I told you: The theory behind Sigmund Freud's Freudian slips has been proven, claims new research

The theory of unconscious conflict which leads to the Freudian slip has been scientifically supported 111 years after it was theorised, claims research.

A new study has revealed how the theory, which forms part of the basis of psychoanalysis, is linked to the conscious symptoms of people with anxiety disorders such as phobias.

For years, people have referred to mistakes, like calling a partner by the wrong name, as a Freudian slip. They are believed to reveal unconscious thoughts or feelings driving people's behaviour.

According to Freud's theory, the conscious mind includes everything that people are aware of - an aspect of mental processing that can help people think and talk rationally with others.

The unconscious mind is the realm of feelings, thoughts, urges, and memories of which people are unaware. Often they are unacceptable or unpleasant, such as feelings of pain, anxiety, or conflict, and hence repressed.

But the unconscious continues to influence our behaviour and experience, even though we are unaware of these underlying influences.

Freud postulated that it is the conflicts between the conscious view of reality and unconscious, repressed material can cause mental disturbances such as anxiety, depression and obsession.

Researchers took 11 people with anxiety disorders who all received psychoanalysis as part of the study, to see what underlying unconscious conflict might be causing the anxiety.

Words capturing the nature of the unconscious conflict were then selected from the interviews, as well as words that related to each patient's experience of anxiety disorder symptoms.

A control category with words that had no relationship to the unconscious conflict or anxiety symptoms were presented to three patients wearing scalp electrodes to measure brain responses.

Researchers found a new measurement of the brain's alpha wave frequency, linked to communication, was made when the unconscious conflict words were presented directly before the conscious words.

Results showed highly significant correlations, suggesting an inhibitory effect, were obtained when the amount of alpha generated by the unconscious words were grouped with the conscious words.

The researchers believe the fact these are a function of inhibition suggests, from a psychoanalytical viewpoint, repression might be involved.

'Hey Claire. Uh, I mean Debs': Freudian slips are believed to reveal unconscious thoughts or feelings driving people's behaviour

Professor Howard Shevrin, of the University of Michigan, said: 'Only when the unconscious conflict words were presented unconsciously could the brain see them as connected.

'What the analysts put together from the interview session made sense to the brain only unconsciously.

'These results create a compelling case that unconscious conflicts cause or contribute to the anxiety symptoms the patient is experiencing.

'These findings and the interdisciplinary methods used - which draw on psychoanalysis, cognitive psychology, and neuroscience - demonstrate that it is possible to develop an interdisciplinary science drawing upon psychoanalytic theory.'