Wit and its relation to the unconsciousFreud, Sigmund
Science
Wit and its relation to the unconscious
Freud, Sigmund
Subconsciousness; Wit and humor -- Psychological aspects
Footnote 37:
The word tendency encountered hereafter in the expression
“Tendency-Wit” (Tendenz Witz) is used adjectively in the same sense as
in the familiar phrase “Tendency Play.”
Footnote 38:
Cf. my _Psychopathology of Everyday Life_, translated by A. A. Brill,
The Macmillan Co., New York, and T. Fisher Unwin, London.
Footnote 39:
Cf. _Three Contributions to the Theory of Sex_, 2nd Ed., 1916,
translated by A. A. Brill, Monograph Series, _Journal of Nervous and
Mental Diseases_.
Footnote 40:
Moll’s _Kontrektationstrieb_ (Untersuchungen über die Libido
sexualies, 1898).
Footnote 41:
It is the same mechanism that controls “slips of the tongue” and other
phenomena of self-betrayal. Cf. _The Psychopathology of Everyday
Life_.
Footnote 42:
“There is nothing certain about to-morrow,” Lorenzo del Medici.
Footnote 43:
See his essays in the _Politisch-anthropologischen Revue_, II, 1903.
Footnote 44:
An habitual beggar.
Footnote 45:
If I may be permitted to anticipate what later is discussed in the
text I can here throw some light upon the condition which seems to be
authoritative in the usage of language when it is a question of
calling a joke “good” or “poor.” If by means of a double meaning or
slightly modified word I have gotten from one idea to another by a
short route, and if this does not also simultaneously result in
senseful association between the two ideas, then I have made a “poor”
joke. In this poor joke one word or the “point” forms the only
existing association between the two widely separated ideas. The joke
“Home-Roulard” used above is such an example. But a “good” joke
results if the infantile expectation is right in the end and if with
the similarity of the word another essential similarity in meaning is
really simultaneously produced—as in the examples Traduttore—Traditore
(translator—traitor), and Amantes—Amentes (lovers—lunatics). The two
disparate ideas which are here linked by an outer association are held
together besides by a senseful connection which expresses an important
relationship between them. The outer association only replaces the
inner connection; it serves to indicate the latter or to clarify it.
Not only does “translator” sound somewhat similar to “traitor,” but he
is a sort of a traitor whose claims to that name are good. The same
may be said of Amantes—Amentes. Not only do the words bear a
resemblance, but the similarity between “love” and “lunacy” has been
noted from time immemorial.
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