Wit and its relation to the unconsciousFreud, Sigmund
Science
Wit and its relation to the unconscious
Freud, Sigmund
Subconsciousness; Wit and humor -- Psychological aspects
What is important in the second class are the conditions of which one
may be designated as the “isolation” of the comic case. A closer
analysis renders conspicuous relations something like the following:
a) The favorable condition for the origin of comic pleasure is brought
about by a general happy disposition in which “one is in the mood for
laughing.” In happy toxic states almost everything seems comic, which
probably results from a comparison with the expenditure in normal
conditions. For wit, the comic, and all similar methods of gaining
pleasure from the psychic activities, are nothing but ways to regain
this happy state—euphoria—from one single point, when it does not exist
as a general disposition of the psyche.
b) A similar favorable condition is produced by the expectation of the
comic or by putting one’s self in the right mood for comic pleasure.
Hence when the intention to make things comical exists and when this
feeling is shared by others, the differences required are so slight that
they probably would have been overlooked had they been experienced in
unpremeditated occurrences. He who decides to attend a comic lecture or
a farce at the theater is indebted to this intention for laughing over
things which in his everyday life would hardly produce in him a comic
effect. He finally laughs at the recollection of having laughed, at the
expectation of laughing, and at the appearance of the one who is to
present the comic, even before the latter makes the attempt to make him
laugh. It is for this reason that people admit that they are ashamed of
that which made them laugh at the theater.
c) Unfavorable conditions for the comic result from the kind of psychic
activity which may occupy the individual at the moment. Imaginative or
mental activity tending towards serious aims disturbs the discharging
capacity of the investing energies which the activity needs for its own
displacements, so that only unexpected and great differences of
expenditure can break through to form comic pleasure. All manner of
mental processes far enough removed from the obvious to cause a
suspension of ideational mimicry are unfavorable to the comic; in
abstract contemplation there is hardly any room left for the comic,
except when this form of thinking is suddenly interrupted.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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