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This paper analyzes three closely connected propositions. The first concerns the spiritual side of Lacan, inimitable without sinking into utter ridicule, and his interest in “ Witz,” both of which are at the core of has been called Lacan’s “return to Freud” in the 1950s. Secondly, his approach to speech and language through jokes defines a materialist stance in his dealing with analytical symptoms the sense of which this paper attempts to pinpoint. Thirdly, an essential component of his approach in the 1950s stems from his reading of Marx, which is often forgotten since Lacan himself said little about it until the late 1960s. However, this reading reveals repeated omissions of Marx that testify to Lacan’s vertigo with regard to the famous laughter of the capitalist in Marx’s Das Kapital.