The Jokes of Sigmund Freud: A Study in Humor and Jewish Identity

by Elliott Oring

Overview

The Jokes of Sigmund Freud unravels the intimate connections between Sigmund Freud and his Jewish identity. Author Elliott Oring observes that Freud frequently identified with the characters in the jokes he told, and that there was a strong relationship between these jokes and his own psychological and social state. This analysis offers novel insights into the enigmatic character of Freud and a fresh perspective on the nature of the science that he founded.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781461631514
Publisher:	Aronson, Jason Inc.
Publication date:	04/16/2007
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	168
File size:	1 MB

About the Author

Elliott Oring received his Ph.D. in Folklore from Indiana University in 1974 and is currently Professor of Anthropology at California State University, Los Angeles. He has written extensively about folklore, humor, and cultural symbolism. His books include Israeli Humor (1981), Humor and the Individual (1984), and Jokes and Their Relations (1992), as well as Folk Groups and Folklore Genres: An Introduction (1986), and Folk Groups and Folklore Genres: A Reader (1989). He served as editor of Western Folklore and is currently on the editorial board of Humor: International Journal of Humor Research. Dr. Oring is a Fellow of the American Folklore Society and a Folklore Fellow of the Finnish Academy of Science and Letters.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments     ix
Introduction     xi
Jokes and Freud     1
The Schnorrer     13
The Schadchen     27
The Ostjude     42
Fahrenheit     52
The Kuck     79
The Egyptian Moses     91
The Complex     102
The Sublimation     119
Abbreviations     124
Notes     125
Bibliography     142
Index     149

Editorial Reviews

The author manages to be analytical without denigrating Freud, thus avoiding the negative bent in which so many of his critics seem to delight. It makes enjoyable reading.

L.I.G.H.T.

Oring's book on Freud is meticulous, intelligent, solidly researched, and well written.

Leo Rosten

The most sustained effort, a well-informed monograph from which I have learned.

Peter Gay

There is something very bracing in Oring's ability to find some of Freud's deepest concerns in something apparently frivolous.

Women's Wear Daily

Professor Oring, an anthropologist, has not told us what Freud has eaten, but his integration of data provides a satisfying treatment of the socio-historical context for what other pathologists have previously uncovered.

International Psychologist

Oring's work is a serious work of psychobiography. He has collected the jokes and compiled other materials in a scholarly, beautifully annotated way.

International Review Of Psychotherapy

The thoroughness of Oring's scholarship is impressive. He has ferreted through a mountain of writings by and about Freud, and his treatment of the material is highly intelligent and interesting.

gem

Oring's analysis is subtle, extremely well-documented, and practically free of conjecture.

Semiotica: Journal of the International Association for Semiotic Studies

Oring has made a major contribution to the study of Freud.

Los Angeles Jewish Community Bulletin