Der Witz und seine Beziehung zum Unbewußten

The work offers a psychoanalytic account of joking, first analyzing forms and techniques such as wordplay, ambiguity, and narrative devices, then examining tendencies and motives that underlie joke-telling. It argues that jokes operate by economizing mental expenditure and releasing repressed psychic energy, employing mechanisms like condensation and displacement similar to those found in dreams. The text also considers the social functions of humor, including tension relief, aggression, and group cohesion, and classifies types of the comic. Throughout, theory and clinical observation are combined to trace how unconscious wishes and defenses shape the production and reception of jokes.