Changes

<blockquote>Wit is, so to [[speak]], the contribution to the comic from the sphere of the [[unconscious]].<ref>{{WRU}} Ch. VII </ref></blockquote>

<blockquote>Though wit-making is an excellent means of obtaining [[pleasure ]] from the [[psychic ]] [[processes]], we [[know ]] that not all persons are equally able to make use of it. Wit-making is not at the disposal of all, in general there are but a few persons to whom one can point and say that they are witty. Here wit seems to be a special ability somewhere within the region of the old "psychic faculties," and this shows itself in its [[appearance ]] as fairly independent of the [[other ]] faculties such as intelligence, [[phantasy]], [[memory]], etc. A special talent or psychic determination permitting or favoring wit-making must be presupposed in all witmakers.<ref>{{WRU}} Ch. V </ref></blockquote>

<blockquote>It has seemed to us that the pleasure of wit originates from an [[economy ]] of expenditure in [[inhibition]], of the comic from an economy of expenditure in [[thought]], and of [[humor ]] from an economy of expenditure in [[feeling]]. All [[three ]] modes of [[activity ]] of our psychic [[apparatus ]] derive pleasure from economy. All three [[present ]] methods strive to bring back from the psychic activity a pleasure which has really been lost in the [[development ]] of this activity. For the euphoria which we are thus striving to obtain is [[nothing ]] but the [[state ]] of a bygone [[time]], in which we were wont to defray our phychic [[work ]] with slight expenditure. It is the state of our [[childhood ]] in which we did not know the comic, were incapable of wit, and did not [[need ]] humor to make us happy.<ref>{{WRU}} Ch. VII </ref></blockquote>

<blockquote>The most important [[difference ]] lies in heir [[social ]] [[behavior]]. The [[dream ]] is a perfectly asocial psychic product. It has nothing to tell to anyone else, having originated in an [[individual ]] as a compromise between conflicting psychic forces it remains incomprehensible to the person himself and has therefore altogether no interest for anybody else. Not only does the dream find it unnecessary to [[place ]] any [[value ]] on intelligibleness, but it must even guard against [[being ]] [[understood]], as it would then be destroyed; it can only [[exist ]] in disguised [[form]]. For this [[reason ]] the dream may make use freely of the [[mechanism ]] that controls unconscious thought processes to the extent of producing undecipherable distortions. Wit, on the other hand, is the most social of all those psychic functions whose aim is to gain pleasure. It often requires three persons, and the psychic [[process ]] which it incites always requires the [[participation ]] of at least one other person. It must therefore [[bind ]] itself to the condition of intelligibleness; it may employ [[distortion ]] made practicable in the unconscious through [[condensation ]] and [[displacement]], to no greater extent than can be deciphered by the intelligence of the [[third ]] person. As for the rest, wit and [[dreams ]] have developed in altogether different spheres of the psychic [[life]], and are to be classed under widely separated [[categories ]] of the [[psychological ]] [[system]]. No matter how concealed, the dream is still a [[wish]], while wit is a developed play. Despite its [[apparent ]] unreality, the dream retains its relation to the great interests of life; it seeks to supply what is [[lacking ]] through a [[regressive ]] detour of [[hallucinations]]; and it owes its [[existence ]] solely to the strong need for [[sleep ]] during the night. Wit, on the other hand, seeks to draw a small amount of pleasure from the free and unencumbered activities of our [[psychic apparatus]], and later to seize this pleasure as an incidental gain. It thus secondarily reaches to important functions relative to the outer [[world]]. The dream serves preponderantly to guard against [[pain]], while wit serves to acquire pleasure; in these two aims all our psychic activities meet.<ref>{{WRU}} Ch. VI </ref></blockquote>

<blockquote>As we know that displacements in [[dream-work ]] point to the influence of [[censorship ]] of [[conscious ]] thought, we will consequently be inclined to assume that an inhibiting force also plays a part in the [[formation ]] of wit when we find the process of displacement among the techniques of wit. We also know that this is commonly the [[case]]; the endeavor of wit to revive the old pleasure in nonsense or the old pleasure in [[word]]-play meets with [[resistance ]] in every normal state, a resistance which is exerted by the protest of critical reason, and which must be overcome in each individual case. But a radical [[distinction ]] between wit and dreams is shown in the manner in which the witwork solves this difficulty. In the dream-work the solution of this task is brought [[about ]] regularly through displacements and through the [[choice ]] of [[ideas ]] which are remote enough from those objectionable to secure passage through the censorship; the latter themselves are but offsprings of those whose psychic [[cathexis ]] they have taken over through [[full ]] [[transference]]. The displacements are, therefore, not lacking in any dream and are far more compresensive. They not only include the deviations from the trend of thought, but also all forms of indirect expression, especially the [[substitution ]] for an important but offensive element by one indifferent and seemingly harmless to the censorship, which then looks like a most remote allusion to the first; they also include substitution through [[symbols]], comparisons, or trifies. It is not to be denied that parts of this indirect [[representation ]] really originate in the foreconscious [[thoughts ]] of the dream-as, for example, [[symbolical ]] representation and representation through comparisons-because otherwise the thought would not have reached the state of the foreconscious expression. Such indirect expressions and allusions, whose reference to the original thought is easily detectable, are really permissible and customary means of expression even in our conscious thought. The dream-work, however, exaggerates the application of these means of indirect expression to an unlimited degree. Under the pressure of the [[censor ]] any kind of [[association ]] becomes [[good ]] enough for substitution by allusion; the displacement from one element to any other is permitted. The substitution of the inner [[associations ]] (similarity, causal connection, etc.) by the socalled outer associations (simultaneity, contiguity in [[space]], assonance) is particularly conspicuous and characteristic of the dream-work. <ref>{{WRU}} Ch. VI </ref></blockquote>