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Freud's theory of humor.

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DOI: 10.1007/978-3-319-28099-8_588-1

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Freud’s Theory of Humor their Relation to the Unconscious (1905). Freud

later reflected that this work “considered humor
Maria Christoff and Barry Dauphin really from the economic view alone,” and
Department of Psychology, University of remedied this with the short paper Humour
Detroit – Mercy, Detroit, MI, USA (1928), which included a view of humor from
his revised structural model of the psyche (p. 1).
Freud’s structural model was largely developed
Synonyms in The Ego and the Id (1923/1961) and can be
reviewed there. The main text of this entry
Freud’s theory of jokes; Freud’s theory of joke- summarizes Freud’s contributions made to the
work; Psychoanalytic theory of humor; Psycho- psychoanalytic theory of humor. Later psychoan-
analytic theory of humor; Psychoanalytic theory alytic developments are brought to bear on
of jokes Freud’s theory on humor.

Definition Dream-Work/Joke-Work

The following entry describes Freud’s (1900, In his 1905 text, Freud states that the unconscious
1905, 1928) psychoanalytic theory of jokes, processes involved in the development of jokes
humor, and their relation to unconscious are nearly identical to those involved in dreaming.
processes. In dreaming, preconscious “day residue,” includ-
ing desires and impulses repressed from con-
sciousness, are filtered through the dynamic
Introduction unconscious portion of the psyche (p. 160).
These desires and impulses have been defensively
In The Interpretation of Dreams (1900) Sigmund denied due to their lack of accordance with
Freud made many preliminary connections learned societal restrictions upon acceptable
between the psychic processes found in the pro- behavior and expression. In order for the sleeper
duction of dreams and with the production of to stay asleep, instead of being disturbed by the
humor. Encouraged by a correspondence with processing of such material, the unconscious dis-
his friend Wilhelm Fliess, Freud went on to guises it, giving it a revised form, which is no
write a book entirely devoted to an examination longer threatening, and makes this material acces-
of the comic, humor, and jokes, entitled Jokes and sible to consciousness. This entire process is
# Springer International Publishing AG 2017
V. Zeigler-Hill, T.K. Shackelford (eds.), Encyclopedia of Personality and Individual Differences,
DOI 10.1007/978-3-319-28099-8_588-1
2 Freud’s Theory of Humor

called dream-work. Joke-work, the waking corre- consciousness, for example, feelings of aggres-
late of dream-work, has many similarities. Jokes sion towards another person. Through uncon-
seem to come to their creator complete, in a scious joke-work, the energy formerly occupied
momentary period of blankness, signaling their by repression is released, and the aggression
emergence from the unconscious mind, similar becomes expressible, in a now innocuous form,
to the current bottom-up processing theory of a joke. However, the first person uses psychic
cognitive psychology (Rauss and Pourtois 2013). energy in the unconscious processes of creating
More importantly, the joke-work transforms unac- the joke. In telling the joke to a third person, and
ceptable impulses and emotions into pleasurable making this third person laugh, the first person is
ones, by means of replacing obscenity, aggres- able to observe the laughter of the third person,
sion, cynicism, and deep skepticism with laughter. and share in a further release of energy through
The dream-work and joke-work alike make use of mutual laughter. For the listener, the repressed
the following psychic tools to complete these impulse is presented and released in quick succes-
transformations: condensation, displacement, sion, allowing for a rapid and intense experience
and indirect representation. Condensation makes of pleasure. For both the teller and the hearer of
use of the multiple meanings of words, for exam- the joke, empathy and a placing of oneself into the
ple in the joke, “The man walked into the bar and thought processes of the other are essential for this
said, ‘Ouch.’” Displacement, or modification, procedure to be successful. The thinking of one
refers to slight differences in words or word mind into another described by Freud resembles
usage, or the formation of composite words, the subsequent theory of mind proposed by Pre-
which leads to humorous formulations. Freud mack and Woodruff (1978). However, Freud
(1905) gives this example: “A horse-dealer was (1905) goes beyond reliance on empathy alone
recommending a saddle-horse to a customer. ‘If and suggests a form of “ideational mimetics,”
you take this horse and get on it at four in the (p. 192) quite similar to recent research into the
morning you’ll be at Pressburg by half-past six.’ – function of mirror neurons (Rizzolatti and
‘What should I be doing in Pressburg at half-past Craighero, 2004), in which the listener uncon-
six in the morning?’” (p. 54). Indirect representa- sciously imagines themselves in the place of the
tion includes such joke-techniques as absurdity, teller. The complex exchange between teller and
faulty reasoning, and analogies. Freud (1905) listener in the joking process described by Freud
gives an example: “Everyone has his moral back- (1905) also foreshadows the later object relations
side, which he does not show except in case of concept of projective identification described by
need and which he covers as long as possible with Klein (1975), Bion (1983), and Bollas (1987), in
the breeches of respectability,” (p. 84). Whereas which psychic energies are constantly being
dream-work seeks to minimize displeasure, joke- exchanged in the course of normal and psycho-
work seeks to maximize pleasure. Freud (1905) therapeutic interactions, and in which the inner
adds, “all our mental activities converge in these psychic economy is intimately tied to the psychic
two aims,” (p. 180). processes within others. In this mutual exchange,
laughter is “a relaxation of tension,” and “a release
from constraint,” for both parties (Freud 1905,
Economy of Joking p. 147).

In order to describe this economic convergence of

the two aims of minimizing displeasure and max- The Highest of Defensive Processes
imizing pleasure, Freud asked why the person
who thought of the joke feels it needs to be told, In conclusion to his 1905 book, Freud declares
and what psychic processes take place in the lis- that humor, like repression, is a defensive process.
tener, versus the teller. In the teller of the joke, Although he noted that, “We get an impression
psychic energy is occupied in repressing from that the subjective determinants of the joke-work
Freud’s Theory of Humor 3

are often not far removed from those of neurotic place in both the teller and the listener, and sum-
illness,” and “the joker is a disunited personality, marized Freud’s (1928) additions to his theory of
disposed to neurotic disorders,” he quickly humor.
dismissed any inherent connection between
humor and neurosis (Freud 1905, p. 142). Instead,
he concluded that humorous displacement, unlike
References
other defense mechanisms, directly faces the per-
ceived psychic threat. Humor acknowledges the Bion, W. (1983). Attention and interpretation. Lanham:
existence of the threatening affect and transforms Rowman and Littlefield Publishers, Inc.
it through the mechanisms described above into Bollas, C. (1987). The shadow of the object: Psychoanal-
pleasurable affect. In his 1928 paper, Freud ysis of the unthought known. New York: Columbia
University Press.
amends that this healthy defensive maneuver is Freud, S. (1900). The interpretation of dreams. The stan-
made possible through the I’s alignment with the dard edition of the complete psychological works of
Above-I, the internalized voices of our parents as Sigmund Freud, Vols. 4 and 5.
they encouraged us to be brave, to “adopt a Freud, S. (1905). Jokes and their relation to the uncon-
scious. The standard edition of the complete psycho-
humorous attitude to ward off suffering,” to buck logical works of Sigmund Freud, vol 8, 1–247.
up, and persevere (Freud 1928, p. 3). In this way, Freud, S. (1928). Humour. International Journal of
it can still help us to adapt to life’s challenges. In Psychoanalysis, 9, 1–6.
Freud’s (1928) words, “Humor is not resigned; it Freud, S. (1961). The ego and the id. In J. Strachey
(Ed. and Trans.), The standard edition of the complete
is rebellious. It signifies the triumph not only of psychological works of Sigmund Freud (Vol.
the ego, but also of the pleasure-principle, which 19, pp. 3–66). London: Hogarth Press (Original work
is strong enough to assert itself here in the face the published 1923).
adverse real circumstances,” (p. 2). Klein, M. (1975). Love guilt and reparation: And other
works (1921–1924). New York, NY: The Free Press.
Premack, D., & Woodruff, G. (1978). Does the chimpanzee
have a ‘theory of mind’? Behavioral and Brain
Conclusion Sciences, 4, 515–526.
Rauss, K., & Pourtois, G. (2013). What is bottom-up and
what is top-down in predictive coding? Fronteirs in
In conclusion, this entry reviewed Freud’s (1905) Psychology, 4, 276. doi:10.3389/fpsyg.2013.00276.
comparison of dream-work and joke-work, pre- Rizzolatti, G., & Craighero, L. (2004). The mirror-neuron
sented a summation of the economic model of system. Annual Review of Neuroscience, 27, 169–192.
jokes including internal psychic processes taking

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