ly fifty years before it was taken over by one of Freuds disciples, Theodor Reik,and was restored and reintepreted in the center of his book, Jewish Wit. Obviously Freud was not comfortable nor confident with remaining on the same level as which the joke was told, which was the social level. But was Freud ever sure of what level he was on? He may have been very intel-igent, but I think he was still unsure of many things, including what level he was on. And believe it or not, I think we all go through different levels and stages, depending on our surroundings andexperiences. One thing can change another. One day we think we have it all figured out, and then the next day a loved one dies, so then we are back to square one. I haven't ever known anyone who is so sure of life that they never question it. But what makes us strong people, andknowledgable people, is our experiences. Maybe some of us are just born geniuses, but it has taken me many stages to get to where I am today, and still, I am questionable of certain things. AndI probably always will be. But I can live with that.The disciple who recovered this train joke came derives from Artur Schnitzler's novel, The Way to the Opera, and is told by the Jewish writer Heinrich Berman to his aristocratic friend George von Werkenthin. Heinrich explains this joke to his friend expressing "the eternal truth thatno Jew has any real respect for his fellow Jew.... Envy, hate, yes frequently admiration, even love,but never respect." I don't know that if when Freud told this joke, he wanted us to think that Jewshave no respect for one another. I don't exactly know what kind of outcome Freud wanted, but I don'tthink Heinrich is completely right. But, of course, I do not know that for a fact. I guess there weremany different ways you could take the joke, I guess I just took it differently.Most importantly, the aggravation of Jewish Emancipation is the focus of Freud's material, no matter if they are j...
