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Procrastination is defined as the act of delaying or postponing anl action into the future. In the extreme it is a very serious problem signaling profound conflict. Freud (1901), who was always interested in the study of symptoms, noted in “The Psychopathology of Everyday Life” that with the circumstance of combined parapraxes one could unconsciously delay action. He used the following illustrations to describe the occurrence of procrastination in our daily lives: (1) regular forgetting; (2) parapraxis obstinately repeating itself; (3) repeated forgetfulness — eventual performance bungled; (4) mislaying, breaking, and forgetting as an example of counterwish.
In “Inhibitions, Symptoms and Anxiety” Freud (1926) refers to the possibility that in the formation of symptoms certain prohibitions may be experienced as a feeling of gratification. The ego defense of reaction formation is a case in point. During the latency period there is a struggle against the temptation of masturbation, which may give rise to a variety of symptoms that can take the characteristics of the performance of a ceremony. These symptoms can now attach themselves to everyday acts —going to bed, locomotion, dressing, and so on —and as such have the tendency toward repetition. As unproductive repetition these acts can be viewed as procrastination. The aim of this ceremonial activity is to avoid certain symbolized acts. In puberty the genital impulses of childhood resume, along with their inhibitions. In many cases, for the adolescent, the need to procrastinate rather than to perform is based in sexual conflict and masturbatory guilt. Symptoms and ceremonies (among which is the ritual of procrastination) can then be substituted for sexual gratification. Therefore diversion from the act, rather than performance of it, becomes the focus of pleasure. Not