Is the Drive Structured Like a Joke?

Abstract

The text points out some aspects of the phenomenon of the joke as presented by Freud in his seminal work The Joke and Its Relation to the Unconscious, which is here interpreted as the work which presents the relationship between the signifier and the object/drive. Some basic features of the joke are presented, its similarity with other formations of the unconscious, its specificity, the role of the Other in it and the role of surprise, and the relation between the joke and enjoyment. The paper concludes by linking the phenomenon of the joke with Lacan’s interpretation of the drive.