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.
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.
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.
The author writes in a highly sophisticated yet lucid and readable
style…. An interesting investigation of a relatively little studied
aspect of Freud's life that ought to have appeal not only in
relation to Freud's life but as a prototypical study of Jewish
identity.
*Library Journal*
Oring uses psychoanalytic methods of interpretation and his
detective work is uncanny. His novel approach yields a devastating,
original portrait of Freud, rich in startling insights.
*Publishers Weekly*
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*
Oring's book on Freud is meticulous, intelligent, solidly
researched, and well written.
*Leo Rosten*
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*
Oring's analysis is subtle, extremely well-documented, and
practically free of conjecture.
*Semiotica: Journal of the International Association for Semiotic
Studies*
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.*
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*
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 has made a major contribution to the study of Freud.
*Los Angeles Jewish Community Bulletin*
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