Jokes and Their Relation to the Unconscious

Jokes and Their Relation to the Unconscious

Author| Sigmund Freud
Original title| German: Der Witz und seine Beziehung zum Unbewußten
Translator| J. Strachey
Country| Germany and Austria (1905)
United States (1960)
Language| German (1905)
English (1960)
Subjects| Psychoanalysis
Jokes
Humour
Publisher| F. Deuticke

Publication date

| 1905

Published in English

| 1960
Media type| Print

Jokes and Their Relation to the Unconscious (German: Der Witz und seine Beziehung zum Unbewußten)[1] is a 1905 book on the psychoanalysis of jokes and humour by Sigmund Freud, the founder of psychoanalysis.[2] In the work, Freud describes the psychological processes and techniques of jokes, which he compares to the processes and techniques of dreamwork and the unconscious.[3]

## Contents[edit]

Freud claims that "our enjoyment of the joke" indicates what is being repressed in more serious talk.[4] Freud argues that the success of the joke depends upon a psychic economy, whereby the joke allows one to overcome inhibitions.[5]

According to Freud, understanding of joke technique is essential for understanding jokes and their relation to the unconscious, however, these techniques are what make a joke a joke.[6] Freud also noted that the listener laughing really heartily at the joke will typically not be in the mood for investigating its technique.[7]

## Structure[edit]

The book is divided into three sections: "analytic," "synthetic" and "theoretical."

### Analytic part[edit]

The book's first section includes a discussion on the techniques and tendencies of jokes.

### Synthetic part[edit]

The second section includes a discussion on the psychological origins and motives of the joke and the joke as a social process.

### Theoretical part[edit]

The book's final section discusses the joke's relation to dreams and the Unconscious.

## See also[edit]

* Humour in Freud
* Sigmund Freud bibliography

## References[edit]

1. ^ The title is according to the 1905 translation by Joyce Crick. In some other English translations the work is titled The Joke and Its Relation to the Unconscious or Wit and Its Relation to the Unconscious.
2. ^ Doane, Mary Anne. "Theorising the female spectator." Hollywood: Cultural dimensions: ideology, identity and cultural industry studies 4, no. 3 (2004): 95.
3. ^ Laurie, Timothy; Hickey-Moody, Anna (2017), "Masculinity and Ridicule", Gender: Laughter, Farmington Hills, MI: Macmillan Reference: 215–228
4. ^ Billig, Michael. "The dialogic unconscious: Psychoanalysis, discursive psychology and the nature of repression." British Journal of Social Psychology 36, no. 2 (1997): 139-159.
5. ^ Atluri, Tara. "Lighten up?! Humour, Race, and Da off colour joke of Ali G." Media, Culture & Society 31, no. 2 (2009): 197-214.
6. ^ Neitz, Mary Jo. "Humor, hierarchy, and the changing status of women." Psychiatry 43, no. 3 (1980): 211-223.
7. ^ Janks, Hilary. "Critical literacy: Beyond reason." The Australian Educational Researcher 29, no. 1 (2002): 7-26.

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Sigmund Freud

Books|

* On Aphasia (1891)
* Studies on Hysteria (1895)
* The Interpretation of Dreams (including On Dreams) (1899)
* The Psychopathology of Everyday Life (1901)
* Jokes and Their Relation to the Unconscious (1905)
* Totem and Taboo (1913)
* The History of the Psychoanalytic Movement (1914)
* Introduction to Psychoanalysis (1916-17)
* Group Psychology and the Analysis of the Ego (1921)
* The Ego and the Id (1923)
* The Question of Lay Analysis (1926)
* The Future of an Illusion (1927)
* Civilization and Its Discontents (1930)
* Moses and Monotheism (1939)

Essays|

* "The Aetiology of Hysteria" (1896)
* Three Essays on the Theory of Sexuality (1905)
* Delusion and Dream in Jensen's Gradiva (1907)
* Creative Writers and Day-Dreaming (1908)
* Leonardo da Vinci, A Memory of His Childhood (1910)
* On Narcissism (1914)
* Some Character-Types Met with in Psycho-Analytic Work (1915)
* Thoughts for the Times on War and Death (1916)
* Mourning and Melancholia (1918)
* Beyond the Pleasure Principle (1920)
* Medusa's Head (1922)
* Dostoevsky and Parricide (1928)

Case studies|

* "Dora" (Ida Bauer)
* Emma Eckstein
* Herbert Graf ("Little Hans")
* Irma's injection
* "Anna O." (Bertha Pappenheim)
* "Rat Man"
* Sergei Pankejeff ("Wolfman")
* Daniel Paul Schreber

Original
concepts|

* Psychoanalysis
* Id, ego, and super-ego
* Libido
* Preconscious
* Ego ideal
* censorship
* Free association
* Transference
* Psychosexual development
* Oral stage
* Anal stage
* Phallic stage
* Latency stage
* Genital stage
* Oedipus complex
* Father complex
* Deferred obedience
* Reality principle
* Seduction theory

Related|

* Bibliography
* Archives
* Vienna home and museum
* London home and museum
* 1971 statue
* Interment
* Freudian slip
* Humor
* Inner circle
* Neo-Freudianism
* Views on homosexuality
* Religious views

Cultural
depictions|

* Freud: The Secret Passion (1962 film)
* The Visitor (1993 play)
* Mahler on the Couch (2010 film)
* A Dangerous Method (2011 film)
* Freud (2020 TV series)

Family|

* Martha Bernays (wife)
* Anna Freud (daughter)
* Ernst L. Freud (son)
* Clement Freud (grandson)
* Lucian Freud (grandson)
* Walter Freud (grandson)
* Amalia Freud (mother)
* Jacob Freud (father)
* Edward Bernays (nephew)

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