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In psychoanalytic theory, a bungled action such as a slip of the tongue whose goal is not achieved and which is replaced by another.
Like symptoms, parapraxes are interpreted by [[Freud]] as compromise formations resulting from a conflict between conscious intentions and repressed feelings or impulses.
A parapraxis is an act that appears to be unintentional but can be understood, through psychoanalytic exploration, to be perfectly motivated and unconsciously determined. A brief and delimited disturbance that may be spontaneously explained as the result of chance or inattention, a parapraxis may be readily perceived by its initiator or by a third party to be a "mistake."