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In 1927 Freud wrote what should have been a seminal article on humor. In his short essay, he calls humor “a rare and precious gift,” a gift not everyone is fortunate to receive. Despite the high value given to humor by Freud, focus on the functions of humor in analytic treatment has been sparse. The patient's use of humor, moreover, has often been seen as a defensive maneuver, employed to divert attention from some underlying anxiety. This position, when rigidly upheld, overlooks the arguments offered by Freud, who viewed humor as a function of a benevolent superego:
The main thing is the intention which humour carries out, whether it is acting in relation to the self or other people. It means: ‘Look! here is the world, which seems so dangerous! It
Page 111is nothing but a game for children-just worth making a jest about!’ It is really the super-ego which, in humour, speaks such kindly words of comfort to the intimidated ego … (Freud, 1927)
In Freud's view, the fantasy of danger is neither denied, nor repressed, but simply dismissed as unimportant, much as a child with his fears would be reassured by a comforting parent. This benevolent dimension of the superego carries with it certain important implications. Most significantly, humor signals relief for a struggling, even overwhelmed ego. Thus relieved, the ego can achieve increased mastery over internal anxieties as well as over external difficulties. Emst Kris made this link of humor to ego development specific, asserting that the comic element serves to overcome anxiety when the ego is beset with strange and frightening things. Kris added that the clown will lay aside his cap and bells when, and only when, his underlying anxiety has been mastered (Kris, 1952).
A case in point is Paul, a patient in his early fifties with pronounced paranoid ideation, whose aggression first manifested itself in treatment in the form of humorous jibes. When speaking of his anxiety and anger about being cheated, including by me, he joked, “We