Exhaustive Study Notes on Parapraxis and the King's Slip

The New York Psychoanalytic Society and Institute

• Setting and Atmosphere: The New York Psychoanalytic Society and Institute is located in a formal, European-style building on a quiet side street on the Upper East Side of Manhattan. The interior is characterized by:

  • Oak tables.

  • High ceilings.

  • A library featuring long ribbons of leather-bound volumes.

  • A row of $5$ different busts of Sigmund Freud.

• Key Individual: Malcolm Gladwell meets with Michelle Press, the president of the society and a psychoanalyst, described as possessing patience and openness typical of high-quality therapists.

Defining Parapraxis and the Freudian Slip

• Etymology: The term "parapraxis" is derived from the Greek, where para means abnormal or beyond, and praxis means act.

• Freud’s Terminology: Freud originally used the German term Fehlleistungen, translated as "faulty acts" or "faulty functions."

• Nature of Parapraxis: These include slips of the tongue, misreadings, and mishearings.

• Clinical Significance: Michelle Press explains that while some slips may be attributed to fatigue, medical illness, or accident, Freud argued that if one "does the work," they will find a specific "sense" or meaning behind the slip.

• The Unconscious Mechanism: These slips are not accidental. They represent unconscious forces or ideas that are normally suppressed because they are deemed "unacceptable." These ideas find expression when a person is unguarded.

The First Instance: The Parapraxis in "Old Shep"

• The Song Context: In $1956$, Elvis Presley recorded "Old Shep," a sentimental song about a boy and his dog written in the $1930s$ by Red Foley.

• The Plot of the Song: The dog, Shep, becomes old and sick. A veterinarian suggests there is no hope. The boy considers using a rifle to end the dog's misery but cannot. He cradles the dog as it dies. The song concludes with the line "Old Shep has gone home."

• The Parapraxis (Slip): Psychologists Alan Elms and Bruce Heller identified a significant discrepancy between the original and Elvis’s cover:

  • Original (Hank Snow/Red Foley): "I stroked the best pal that a man ever found."

  • Elvis’s Version: "I had struck the best friend a man ever had."

• Psychological Interpretation:

  • The original lyric is about nurture, sympathy, and the boy recovering his humanity by choosing not to use violence.

  • Elvis’s slip from "stroked" to "struck" turns moral redemption into "morbid remorse." It suggests the narrator holds himself responsible for an act of violence that did not actually occur in the narrative.

• Elvis’s Connection to the Song: "Old Shep" was the first song Elvis learned on guitar. He performed it incessantly:

  • At age $10$ at the Mississippi-Alabama Fair (his first public performance).

  • At his high school talent show (which he won).

  • On dates with girls.

Biographical Context of Elvis Presley

• Twinless Twin: Elvis was a "twinless twin"; his brother died in utero. Elvis was obsessed with this loss, frequently bringing up the void left by someone who should have been his closest friend.

• Relationship with Gladys Presley: His mother, Gladys, was controlling and intense. Elvis called her "baby."

  • At her funeral (when Elvis was $23$), he threw himself on her casket and talked to her dead feet, calling them her "little suities."

  • He repeatedly expressed a desire to die with her.

• Themes in Elvis’s Life: His life revolved around themes of love, betrayal, and loss, which are central to the narratives found in the songs he struggled to perform correctly.

Inside the Life of Elvis and Priscilla Presley

• Interview Details: Malcolm Gladwell references a $1985$ interview between Barbara Walters and Priscilla Presley.

• Meeting and Living Conditions: Elvis met Priscilla when she was $14$. She moved into Graceland in Memphis.

  • Elvis once took her to a morgue, possibly for "shock value" or personal thrill.

  • They would spend weeks in a bedroom with blackout drapes and the temperature kept freezing cold, described by Priscilla as a "womb" or "cocoon."

• Control and Celibacy: Priscilla noted that Elvis controlled her entire appearance—clothes, hair, and makeup. Despite sleeping in the same bed for $6$ years before marriage, they never had intercourse because Elvis had a concept of wanting a "virgin."

The History of "Are You Lonesome Tonight?"

• Recording Session: Recorded on $04/04/1960$ at RCA Studios on Music Row in Nashville.

• Unusual Circumstances:

  • The song was a favorite of the wife of Elvis's manager, Tom Parker.

  • It was recorded at $4$:$00$ AM in total darkness.

  • Elvis did $5$ takes and disliked all of them.

  • The label held the single back for $7$ to $8$ months before release.

• The Problematic Element: The song features a "spoken bridge" or soliloquy in the middle. While the sung parts reflect a man in control questioning a lover, the spoken bridge shows the narrator as vulnerable, deceived, and lonely.

Malcolm Gladwell's Parapraxis and the Anxiety of Creativity

• Gladwell’s Slip: During the interview with Michelle Press, Gladwell says, "I'm worried about that," when he meant to say he was interested.

• Psychoanalytic Feedback: Press notes that Gladwell is currently "immersed" in Elvis, and the slip might be a key to an anxiety he is puzzling over.

• The Anxiety of Control: Gladwell admits a fear of losing control during a creative presentation—the moment where the "presentation to the audience is unmasked."

The Clinical Study of Elvis’s Live Performances

• The Source: Alan Elms and Bruce Heller published an essay in $2005$ titled "$12$ Ways to Assessing Air and Control in the Music of Elvis Presley" in the Handbook of Psychobiography.

• Data Analysis: The researchers analyzed $10$ known live recordings of "Are You Lonesome Tonight?" ranging from $1961$ in Honolulu to $1977$.

• The Findings:

  • Elvis performed the sung portions flawlessly because he remained in control.

  • In the $10$ performances of the spoken bridge, they counted a total of $109$ errors.

  • $29$ of these errors occurred in just $4$ specific lines:

    1. "I loved you at first glance" (confession of depth).

    2. "You seemed to change, you acted strange" (testimony of betrayal).

    3. "And why I’ve never known" (feelings of victimization).

    4. "With emptiness all around" (admission of loneliness).

• Temporal Connection: The most "mangled" versions of the bridge occurred after the summer of $1972$, the period when Priscilla Presley left Elvis for her karate teacher, Mike Stone.

Jack White on the Emotional Weight of the Spoken Bridge

• Meeting with Jack White: Malcolm Gladwell visits Third Man Records in Nashville. White has a literal shrine to Elvis in his hallway.

• Jack White’s Own Slip: While performing the bridge for Gladwell, White says "You read your lines so carefully" instead of the actual lyric "cleverly."

• Interpretation of the Slip: Gladwell suggests this was a moment of vulnerability—White was being "careful" and full of care while performing the work of his idol.

• Musician's Insight: White observes that the song is a "MacGuffin." The singer pretends to worry about the lover's loneliness, but is actually confessing his own. He notes that the bridge is difficult because the meter of the waltz ($123$, $123$) clashes with the natural rhythm of speech, causing a breakdown in performance.

Bobby Braddock, Casey Bowles, and the Failure of Memory

• Bobby Braddock’s Perspective: Known as the "king of tears," Braddock discusses "recitations" (spoken parts in country songs). He mentions his own song for Toby Keith, "I Wanna Talk About Me," which was a successful recitation despite containing lines labels thought were un-cuttable (e.g., "menstrual period line").

• Casey Bowles’s Parapraxis: A singer-songwriter who struggles to remember the lyrics to her own song, "Somebody Something," which is about her mother.

  • The Missing Lyric: "Daughter, a lover, a wife, and a mother. She's lived every life but her own."

  • The Emotional Block: Bowles realizes she can remember a rap from "New Edition" from $1982$, but cannot remember these specific lines about her mother. The lines reflect her mother's lack of freedom and self-sacrifice, themes that are personally painful for Bowles.

The Philosophical Revaluation of Parapraxis

• Redefining Failure: Gladwell concludes that parapraxis is not a failure of performance. Rather than being cheated, the audience is given a "gift."

• The Function of Mistakes: Mistakes reveal vulnerabilities and make a performance real. They provide a window into the performer's pain and humanity.

• Summary Logic: A "lesser person" would have sung the song perfectly. The slip of the tongue is the mechanism by which the world understands the true emotional state of the speaker.

Questions & Discussion

• Gladwell asks Jack White: "Anything any other ones [Elvis songs] you do? Why that one?"

• Jack White’s Response: White explains he heard the song from a band called the Flat Duo Jets. He also recounts a story of Robert Plant telling Elvis he loved that song; Elvis then chased him into the hallway to sing it back to him.

• Gladwell asks Bobby Braddock: "Can you play a little slice of that [Toby Keith song]?"

• Braddock’s Response: Braddock recites the lyrics about talking about church, work, medicine, and mothers vs. lovers.

• Gladwell asks Casey Bowles: "Is it going to be too [much]? could you play that song for us?"

• Bowles’s Response: Bowles attempts to play but has a repeated failure of memory, which leads to the discussion on the emotional roots of her forgetfulness.