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

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.