Sigmund Freud Sigmund Freud ( , ; born Sigismund Schlomo Freud; 6 May 1856 – 23 September 1939) was an Austrian neurologist and the founder of psychoanalysis, a clinical method for evaluating and treating psychopathology, pathologies explained as originatin ...

noticed that

humor Humour (English in the Commonwealth of Nations, Commonwealth English) or humor (American English) is the tendency of experiences to provoke laughter and provide amusement. The term derives from the humorism, humoral medicine of the ancient Gre ...

, like dreams, can be related to unconscious content.Freud, S. (1928). Humor. ''

International Journal of Psychoanalysis ''The International Journal of Psychoanalysis'' is an academic journal in the field of psychoanalysis. The idea of the journal was proposed by Ernest Jones in a letter to Sigmund Freud dated 7 December 1918. The journal itself was established in 1 ...

, 9,'' 1-6 In the 1905 book ''

Jokes and Their Relation to the Unconscious ''Jokes and Their Relation to the Unconscious'' (german: Der Witz und seine Beziehung zum Unbewußten) is a 1905 book on the psychoanalysis of jokes and humour by Sigmund Freud, the founder of psychoanalysis. In the work, Freud describes the psych ...

'' (german: Der Witz und seine Beziehung zum Unbewußten), as well as in the 1928 journal article ''Humor'', Freud distinguished contentious jokesMatte, G. (2001). A psychoanalytical perspective of humor. ''Humor: International Journal of Humor Research, 14''(3),223-241 from non-contentious or silly humor. In fact, he sorted humor into three categories that could be translated as:

joke A joke is a display of humour in which words are used within a specific and well-defined narrative structure to make people laughter, laugh and is usually not meant to be interpreted literally. It usually takes the form of a story, often with ...

comic a Media (communication), medium used to express ideas with images, often combined with text or other visual information. It typically the form of a sequence of Panel (comics), panels of images. Textual devices such as speech balloons, Glo ...

, and

mimetic Mimesis (; grc, μίμησις, ''mīmēsis'') is a term used in literary criticism and philosophy that carries a wide range of meanings, including '' imitatio'', imitation, nonsensuous similarity, receptivity, representation, mimicry, the ...

.Freud, S. (1960). ''Jokes and their relation to the unconscious'' (J. Strachey, Trans.). New York: W. W. Norton. (Original work published 1905)

Freud's theory of humor

In Freud's view, jokes (the verbal and interpersonal form of humor) happened when the

conscious Consciousness, at its simplest, is sentience and awareness of internal and external existence. However, the lack of definitions has led to millennia of analyses, explanations and debates by philosophers, theologians, linguisticians, and scien ...

allowed the expression of thoughts that society usually suppressed or forbade. The

superego The id, ego, and super-ego are a set of three concepts in psychoanalytic theory describing distinct, interacting agents in the psychic apparatus (defined in Sigmund Freud's structural model of the psyche). The three agents are theoretical const ...

allowed the ego to generate

. A benevolent

allowed a light and comforting type of humor, while a harsh superego created a biting and sarcastic type of humor. A very harsh superego suppressed humor altogether.

Freud Sigmund Freud ( , ; born Sigismund Schlomo Freud; 6 May 1856 – 23 September 1939) was an Austrian neurologist and the founder of psychoanalysis, a clinical method for evaluating and treating pathologies explained as originating in conflicts in ...

’s humor theory, like most of his ideas, was based on a dynamic among

id, ego, and super-ego The id, ego, and super-ego are a set of three concepts in psychoanalytic theory describing distinct, interacting agents in the psychic apparatus (defined in Sigmund Freud's structural model of the psyche). The three agents are theoretical const ...

. The commanding superego would impede the ego from seeking pleasure for the id, or to momentarily adapt itself to the demands of reality, a mature coping method. Moreover, Freud (1960) followed

Herbert Spencer Herbert Spencer (27 April 1820 – 8 December 1903) was an English philosopher, psychologist, biologist, anthropologist, and sociologist famous for his hypothesis of social Darwinism. Spencer originated the expression "survival of the fittest" ...

's ideas of energy being conserved, bottled up, and then released like so much steam venting to avoid an explosion. Freud was imagining psychic or emotional energy, and this idea is now thought of as the relief theory of laughter. Later, Freud re-turned his attention to humor noting that not everyone is capable of formulating humor.Newirth, J. (2006). Jokes and their relation to the unconscious: humor as a fundamental emotional experience. ''Psychoanalytic dialogues'', 16(5), 557–571

The different types of humor

jokes A joke is a display of humour in which words are used within a specific and well-defined narrative structure to make people laugh and is usually not meant to be interpreted literally. It usually takes the form of a story, often with dialogue, ...

let out forbidden thoughts and feelings that the conscious mind usually suppresses in deference to society, there was an interaction between unconscious drives and conscious thoughts.

Mimesis Mimesis (; grc, μίμησις, ''mīmēsis'') is a term used in literary criticism and philosophy that carries a wide range of meanings, including ''imitatio'', imitation, nonsensuous similarity, receptivity, representation, mimicry, the act ...

, on the other hand, was a process involving two different representations of the body in our mind. For example, in the phrase “Their hearts are in the right place,” the heart has two representations. One is, of course, anatomical while the other is a metaphorical reference to caring and meaning well.

Tendentious jokes

Tendentious jokes are jokes that contain lust, hostility, or both.

Non-tendentious jokes

The

meant applying “to one and the same act of ideation, two different ideational methods” (Freud, 1905, 300; as cited in Matte, G. (2001)).

William Shakespeare William Shakespeare ( 26 April 1564 – 23 April 1616) was an English playwright, poet and actor. He is widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the world's pre-eminent dramatist. He is often called England's nation ...

’s

Falstaff Sir John Falstaff is a fictional character who appears in three plays by William Shakespeare and is eulogised in a fourth. His significance as a fully developed character is primarily formed in the plays '' Henry IV, Part 1'' and '' Part 2'', w ...

would be an example of Freud's "comic," generating laughter by expressing previously repressed inhibition.Kincaid, J. R. (2001). ''Falstaff as an example for Freud’s “comic.”'' http://www.victorianweb.org/authors/dickens/kincaid2, retrieved from the web on the 12 May 2008. An upset American says at Sunday School: "

Roosevelt Roosevelt may refer to: *Theodore Roosevelt (1858–1919), 26th U.S. president * Franklin D. Roosevelt (1882–1945), 32nd U.S. president Businesses and organisations * Roosevelt Hotel (disambiguation) * Roosevelt & Son, a merchant bank * Rooseve ...

is my Shepherd; I am in want. He makes me to lie down on park benches; he leads me in the paths of destruction for His party's sake".Martin J. (2006) ''Studies in American humor'', University of Southern California, http://www.compedit.com/introduction.htm, retrieved from the web 17 May 2008.

In advertising

An analysis of content from

business-to-business Business-to-business (B2B or, in some countries, BtoB) is a situation where one business makes a commercial transaction with another. This typically occurs when: * A business is sourcing materials for their production process for output (e.g., a ...

advertising magazines in the United States, United Kingdom, and Germany found a high (23 percent) overall usage of humor. The highest percentage was found in the British sample at 26 percent. Of the types of humor found by McCullough and Taylor, three categories correspond with Freud's grouping of tendentious (aggression and sexual) and non-tendentious (nonsense) wit. 20 percent of the humor are accounted for as “aggression” and “sexual.” “Nonsense” is listed at 18 percent.

Criticism

It has been claimed that Freud's division is artificial and not very clear.Altman, N. (2006). And now for something completely different: Humor in psychoanalysis. ''Psychoanalytic Dialogues'', 16(5), 573–577. According to Altman (2006), these divisions are more semantic than functional. Hence, all three types of humor may be the result of the dynamic of the

and

unconscious Unconscious may refer to: Physiology * Unconsciousness, the lack of consciousness or responsiveness to people and other environmental stimuli Psychology * Unconscious mind, the mind operating well outside the attention of the conscious mind a ...

. For example, hate and anger can be hidden by a false sense of love and compassion, which could be the opposite of what was meant, and which could formulate a joke.

References

{{Sigmund Freud Sigmund Freud Humor research