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[[Freud ]] wrote [[Jokes ]] and Their Relation to the [[Unconscious ]] (1905) at nearly the same [[time ]] as [[Three ]] Essays on the [[Theory ]] of [[Sexuality ]] (1905), but here [[pleasure ]] is approached from the angle of wit and its mechanisms and motives. In this [[work ]] Freud further develops his principal discoveries on [[mental ]] [[activity ]] elaborated in The [[Interpretation ]] of [[Dreams ]] (1900), a [[text ]] already containing a reference to wit in the [[structure ]] of dreams.

Jokes and Their Relation to the Unconscious is [[divided ]] into three sections: [[analytic]], synthetic, and [[theoretical]]. As in The [[Interpretation of Dreams]], Freud discusses at length the theories of [[philosophers ]] (Theodor Vischer, Kuno Fischer, Theodor Lipps) and writers (Jean [[Paul]], Heinrich Heine, Georg Licthenberg), and gives examples from [[Jewish ]] folklore in the [[self]]-analytical part of the book. This self-[[analysis ]] is as essential here as it was in Freud's Interpretation of Dreams and The [[Psychopathology ]] of Everyday [[Life ]] (1901).

The first part (analytic) is essentially descriptive: the mechanisms of jokes makes use of the principal elements of [[dream ]] work, which Freud summarizes, providing an [[overview ]] of the techniques used in telling jokes. As with dreams, these mechanisms are unconscious and can only be determined after the fact. But to these mechanisms Freud adds the element of [[meaning]], that is, the aims of wit, the pleasurable or hostile [[satisfaction ]] obtained in telling jokes. It is this meaning that makes his investigation of jokes profound.

The second part (synthetic) investigates the pleasure of jokes and its mechanisms and psychogenesis. Building on the work of Gustav Theodor Fechner, Freud developed an [[economic ]] perspective based on the [[notion ]] of mental economies. Here he makes use of [[ideas ]] developed earlier in the [[Project ]] for a [[Scientific ]] [[Psychology ]] (1950c [1895]). The [[distinction ]] between jokes and the comic allowed Freud to emphasize that the former is essentially a [[social ]] activity requiring the [[presence ]] of a [[third ]] party. The activity is further complicated by the fact that group as well as [[individual ]] dynamics are at play: "Why are we driven to tell our own [[joke ]] to someone else? . . . [B]ecause we are unable to laugh at it ourselves" (Freud, 1905c, p. 190).

The third part (theoretical) returns to the comparison between dreams and jokes, but from the point of view of the unconscious. Freud indicated that he hoped to convince readers of the richness of the hypotheses presented in 1900, which were often reduced to the simplistic [[idea ]] of "[[wish ]] fulfillment." He also related his theories to those of Theodor Lipps and noted "there is a [[return ]] of the [[mind ]] in dreams to an embryonic point of view" (p. 211). In the pleasure of jokes, [[adults ]] rediscover the [[infantile ]] as a source of the unconscious, as illustrated by play with [[words ]] and [[thoughts]]. The chapter closes with an analysis of the varieties of the comic, which is more difficult to analyze because it is not a [[process ]] elaborated like a dream or joke but an [[encounter ]] with a [[situation]]. According to Freud, "The comic arises in the first [[instance ]] as an unintended discovery derived from [[human ]] social relations" (1905c, p. 234). The production of the comic (imitation, caricature) highlights a [[narcissistic ]] aspect of the [[psyche]], that is, the comparison of self and [[other]].

The book concludes with some of Freud's subtlest and richest ideas [[about ]] the [[subject]], namely the distinction between [[humor ]] and irony. He returned to this distinction in his short article on humor in 1927.

Though this book has not always received the attention it deserves, it is definitely an important work. [[Lacan ]] (1998) discussed it in his [[seminar ]] on the [[formations ]] of the unconscious. Theodor Reik (1935) related Freud's economic perspective on jokes to the [[concepts ]] of surprise and discovery.

* [[Freud, Sigmund]]. (1905). Der [[Witz ]] und seine Beziehung zum Unbewussten. Leipzig: Deuticke. G.W., VI. Jokes and their relation to the unconscious. SE,8.* Freud, Sigmund. (1900a). The [[interpretation of dreams]]. SE, 4: 1-338; 5: 339-625.

* [[Lacan, Jacques]]. (1998). Le séminaire. Book 5: Les formations de l'[[inconscient]]. [[Paris]]: Seuil.