A Slip of the Tongue

A patient said to me during analysis 'I have always been afraid that I might have a cancer or a duodenal ulster'. I drew his attention to the word ulster which he had not noticed and he then of course corrected it to ulcer, remarking that it was just a slip of the tongue.

The patient is a medical man and an Irishman. He is not altogether in sympathy with the Sinn Feiners but is a Redmondite, i.e. an ardent Home Ruler. He is very well versed in Irish history and the Irish question.

He is sexually impotent with women. He is not consciously homosexual. He masturbates by stimulating his breasts, rarely by direct manipulation of the penis. The breast stimulation produces erection and emission, the pleasure of which is greatly enhanced if he compresses his penis between his thighs. Masturbation causes him great remorse, depression and weak feelings.

Ireland is symbolic of the patient's mother. Ireland has always been represented by a female figure and spoken of by Irishmen in feminine terms. The patient also identifies himself with Ireland, therefore with his mother.

Ulster has always been the disturbing factor as far as Ireland is concerned; its 'thorn in the flesh' so to speak. Ulster has always been antagonistic to Home Rule and thwarted it. It is joined to Ireland and in a way inseparable from it, yet it holds the whip hand. It acts forcibly towards Ireland. It can be said to be a sort of cancer in Ireland, eating into it. Ulster is symbolic of the patient's father. He feels resentment against Ulster, i.e. his father.

We see in this slip of the tongue an expression of two attitudes, the Oedipus and a homosexual one. The Oedipus complex is shown in his fear and resentment against the father = Ulster = duodenal