NATURE, ORIGIN AND FUNCTION OF HUMOR 151 



III. The Nature and Origin of Humor as a Mental Process 



Schuetze, in 1817, and Hazlitt, in 1819, summarized the various 

 opinions as to the nature of humor up to their time. The former cites 

 some fifteen different authorities and views. Schopenhauer, in 1819, 

 made a decided contribution in that he attempted an exact description 

 of the mental processes involved. Since then the nature of the mental 

 process and its physiological basis have been the main points of dis- 

 cussion. Schuetze, Hoeffding and Sully call attention to the sense of 

 freedom involved. Penjon, in 1893, described at some length the 

 relation of this sense to humor. 



I have already pointed out that the appreciation of law, of order, 

 of harmony and of those things that are inimical to life and freedom 

 begets a sober mental attitude, the intensity of which varies with the 

 weightiness of the matter and the issues involved. Now if, when deal- 

 ing with such matters, the thinking process continues organized and 

 controlled and progresses towards an end, it is termed rational. But if 

 the mental tension exceeds the capacity for controlled thinking, brought 

 on by the sudden triumph of wrong and evil values, disruption of the 

 thinking process at once ensues, accompanied by an unpleasant emotion 

 ranging from mild disappointment to the tragic; if, on the contrary, 

 the disruption is caused by the sudden triumph of good values, a 

 pleasant emotion results. In either case organized and rational 

 processes give way to those of an uncontrolled and emotional sort. The 

 mental stream has had its banks torn away and its forward movement 

 stopped, voluntary movements are replaced by hereditary. In the more 

 intense forms a reversion to primitive conditions may occur; for we 

 then do and say things that may shame us in our sober moments. Now 

 the humor process occurs in just such a disrupted consciousness in- 

 duced hy the triumph of good and pleasurable values preceded by a 

 mental tension similar, but not always equal, to that preceding emo- 

 tions. The common and quiet forms of humor usually occur in a 

 consciousness that has been running at its usual strength and depth, 

 sufficiently organized to command the situation, assume a definite form 

 and take on a certain strength of surface tension. (The term surface 

 tension simply extends the water metaphors of psychology in a logical 

 direction. I use it to indicate the impervious condition of conscious- 

 ness formed in any attentive state, the strength of the surface tension 

 being in direct proportion to the intensity of attention.) The func- 

 tion of the humor stimulus consists in cutting the surface tension, in 

 taking the hide off of consciousness as it were, and in breaking up in 

 part only its organization, which is at once followed by the humor 

 feeling — the next link in the conscious chain. The principal elements 

 in the humor process consist (1) of the perception of the stimulus, 

 (2) the sense of freedom, (3) its recognition. These elements are each 

 suffused by a pleasurable tone and produce by their total synthesis the 



