Sigmund Freud is known around the world as the "Father of Psychoanalysis," and for good reason. If anything, Freud's first patient was himself. A sufferer of psychosomatic symptoms, Freud diagnosed himself as having a repressed antagonism against his father. From there, Freud began to build on his now famous concepts of the unconscious, infantile sexuality and repression. And of course, there's his famous theory on the structure of the mind, which has made Id and Ego a commonly used part of the English lexicon. In addition to all but creating a new field of science, Freud also contributed to entire industries. One of the first to try to analyze dreams, Freud's work has led patients in search of psychological explanations for various physical and mental symptoms and phenomena. And as a practitioner for many years, Freud wrote voluminously about his theories during the early 20th century. As a result, he remains one of the most influential and famous thinkers and psychologists of the 20th century. Wit and Its Relation to the Unconscious is Sigmund Freud's analysis of how and why people find things humorous. In essence, he argues that humor satisfies our unconscious desires to free us from daily stresses and other inhibitions. Freud also dissects humor's relationship with dreaming and certain neuroses.

First Published in 1999. Routledge is an imprint of Taylor & Francis, an informa company.

Observations of the Viennese psychoanalyst on curious plays on words that occur in dreams, and the unconscious sources of pleasure in jokes, wit, and humor.

This work has been selected by scholars as being culturally important, and is part of the knowledge base of civilization as we know it. This work was reproduced from the original artifact, and remains as true to the original work as possible. Therefore, you will see the original copyright references, library stamps (as most of these works have been housed in our most important libraries around the world), and other notations in the work. This work is in the public domain in the United States of America, and possibly other nations. Within the United States, you may freely copy and distribute this work, as no entity (individual or corporate) has a copyright on the body of the work.As a reproduction of a historical artifact, this work may contain missing or blurred pages, poor pictures, errant marks, etc. Scholars believe, and we concur, that this work is important enough to be preserved, reproduced, and made generally available to the public. We appreciate your support of the preservation process, and thank you for being an important part of keeping this knowledge alive and relevant.

Brilliant, perceptive work by founder of psychoanalysis remains one of the essential studies of the psychology of wit and jokes. Freud analyzes wit, probes its origins in the pleasure mechanism, demonstrates parallels of wit to neuroses, dreams and psychopathological acts. This is one of the great analyst's most accessible, enjoyable works.