Re:A sense of humor and the unconscious

I see no one responded yet. I would say that the 'linear part of your statement is incorrect'. Linearity is a construct of the conscious mind, I'd say. And an incorrect one at that. It oversimplifies the world of nature-out-there, the human experience, and how they connect. In many instances, I would expect that the linear learning of the conscious mind becomes rote learning and moves below the threshold of awareness to unconscious learning. However, for the huge amount of direct experience, the unconscious "deep structure" is richer than simple linearity. That's good news as it makes for change and creativity that has 'meaning".

The other part of your question has to do with literalness. Taking easy 'data' such as dreams we'd all conclude that to say unconscious material is completely literal is obviously incorrect. However, perhaps more than in consciousness, the material can also be literal. That's pretty brief, but I imagine you get the idea.

As for humor....I don't know what you mean exactly. Humor is considered a higher cortical activity created when disparate meanings are suddenly/surprisingly juxtaposed. As such, it involves some conscious awareness somewhere. Still, the emotions of joy and, say, humor, are easily retrieved - sometimes, for instance, when can't recall the joke that was spoken but are laughing at the humor it created. And, also consider that most people consciously don't know how to make themselves laugh, even though they do laugh now and then. These resources, then, are stored out of awareness and make up a part of what is referred to as unconscious.

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Re:A sense of humor and the unconscious, by Jim Van Wyck, 07/25/01

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