ABSTRACT
In general, psychoanalysts agree that the satirist is a maladjusted individual who expresses his maladjustment by writing satire. The psychoanalyst and the satirist are similar in that both seek "real" motivations which often prove to be unsavory. Psychoanalysts seem to agree that the satirist is an abnormal type, but they do not agree in identifying either the degree of abnormality or the type. Much of what psychoanalysts say about satirists has been said, in nontechnical language, by other writers, especially by proponents of compensation theories. According to Bergler, the purpose of creating satire and comedy is to permit the writer "to deny inner dependence on the upbringers in childhood, later projected upon the 'great' and not-so-great". According to Sigmund Freud, the humorist adopts towards the listener the attitude of an adult towards a child, minimizing and laughing away the child's problems.
