Yellow Signal

At the turn of 20th century, a Chinese man by the name of Hu Ruding almost got run over by a passing car when he casually crossed the street. After much shock, he thought perhaps there could be a transitional signal between red and green light to further ensure the safety of pedestrians. A random discovery led to his invention. This is the origin of the yellow traffic light today.

However, if the existence of yellow signal is regarded as the psychological transition of an accidental incident, it puts men in a rather awkward position. An American Psychology professor James hypothesized that men has the tendency to link the act of accelerating and braking to pride. He refers to intersection as “mental motion zone”. On the basis of such theory being true, would Freud have provided an alternative analysis for this phenomenon from the view point of Psychopathology – how human instinctively seeks satisfaction to make up for internal or external frustration? It controls the mind to manipulate the reality, putting “the self” in an identity crisis of “one servant for three masters”. Yellow signal virtualizes safety; choices become ambiguous, and judgment is led to an even more complex literal situation. Between incidents and possibilities, error bears the faith in the truth consequently the refusal by the truth. Errors become the basis and the consequence of the truth. As soon as we choose to create facts we create an error, based upon which the next cycle and judgments are carried out.