The Tenth International Psychoanalytic Congress

The Tenth International Psychoanalytic Congress met on September 1-4, 1927, at Innsbrück, Austria. The scope of this review cannot comprise the results of the heated business and educational meetings, nor the recreational advantages of the location and the gathering. The following is a review of the papers delivered in the morning and afternoon sessions of September 2d and 4th.

The opening paper was read by Miss Anna Freud. The essence of Freud's book on Wit and the Unconscious was the delineation of the economic principles involved in the development of wit. The present paper purposes to examine the dynamic mechanism at work in the play of humor.

The humoristic situation consists of either one person or two, in essence. In the first case, the object of the humor is the person of the humorist, whereas in the second case, the bystander or second person is the object. But in neither case is the bystander actually a part of the action, except in the sense of a casual recipient of the pleasure profit.

The genesis of this pleasure profit is readily discerned in the reaction of the listener who expects the development and liberation of an affect. The detour of this energy into humor provokes surprise and the energy used in preparing for a similar affective liberation as expected in the humorist is transformed into the pleasure of humor. It is apparent that the essence of humor consists in the preparation for developing a certain affect and then, instead of liberating the affect commensurate with the situation, turning it into a quip on the possibilities of such a liberation. The question then is: How does the humorist assume the psychic attitude necessary for such a transformation?

The essential difference between humor and wit or comedy, is that the former possesses, in addition to its liberating effect, something which elevates one above the situation in question. This is a kind of egregiousness which is evidently the “triumph of nar