Use Of Humor In Psychotherapy Research Articles

Banter in psychotherapy: Relationship to treatment type, therapeutic alliance, and therapy outcome.

The use of humor in psychotherapy is widely considered to improve therapy outcomes and typically depends on context, patient sensitivity, and the therapist's humor style. Different types of humor may impact treatment type, therapeutic alliance, and therapy outcome; however, evidence from psychotherapy sessions on the role of banter has been sparse to date. Therefore, the study aims to examine banter in a secondary analysis of psychotherapy sessions. The sample consisted of 68 depressed outpatients treated with one of three treatment types: psychoanalytic therapy (PA), psychodynamic therapy (PD), and cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT). Banter and therapeutic alliance were rated for therapy sessions taken from the middle phase of treatment, outcome was assessed at the end of treatment. The main findings were (1) clinical examples of banter in psychotherapy were found in 62 from 68 sessions, (2) significantly more bantering in the main bantering category of facilitation for CBT sessions as compared to other treatment types, (3) facilitative banter as a significant predictor for the positive introject, (4) a significant correlation between bantering and bond between therapist and client. Furthermore, based on these results, psychometric properties of the Klagenfurt Bantering Instrument (KBI) are reported. From a bantering perspective, this study emphasizes the need to consider session context, client response, and sarcastic markers when categorizing negative banter using the KBI.

The Use of Humor in Psychotherapy: Views of Practicing Psychotherapists

ABSTRACT Clinicians hold diverse views about the appropriateness and effectiveness of introducing humor into the process of psychotherapy. The goal of this qualitative phenomenological study was to expand research on the applicability of humor in therapeutic practice via interviews with ten practicing psychotherapists. All participants expressed the belief that humor can have benefits for psychotherapy, but also noted that humor should be introduced cautiously because of the risks involved. Participants’ report of potential advantages and risks are explored, as are contraindications associated with factors such as clients’ gender, culture, mood, or personality traits.

Upotreba humora u psihoterapiji

Upotreba humora u psihoterapiji

Reflections on My 1969 Smith College School for Social Work Thesis: Children’s Use of Humor in Psychotherapy

ABSTRACTI had wanted to do my thesis on family’s use of humor in therapy. My first lesson was that that was too complicated a project—a lesson in practicality, which influenced my entire future career. My thesis also gave me the chance to focus on children’s resourcefulness and resilience, rather than just on their problems and psychopathology. After graduation, my advisor proposed that I publish my thesis. Her generosity in mentoring me toward publication was an extraordinary boon. I had no idea how to go about submitting something for publication, and she guided me through the process, giving me confidence to proceed professionally. I believe practitioners need to be encouraged, as I was, to push their ideas and insights into expanding theory and practice for the benefit of our communities for the future. We have a great need to push the boundaries of support, change, healing, and transformation.

Can the Use of Humor in Psychotherapy be Taught?

Despite an abundance of literature detailing the potential benefits of the use of humor in therapy, humor is rarely taught to psychiatric residents as a method of therapeutic intervention. This communication attempts to explain how current understanding of attachment theory and neuroscience may assist psychiatric faculty and supervisors in their teaching of humorous therapeutic interventions. This article reviews and synthesizes the extant literature on the use of humor, as well as recent work in neuroscience, attachment theory, and mentalization. Humor can be conceptualized as an instance of implicit relational knowing and may thus contribute significantly to the therapeutic action of psychotherapy as a subcategory of "moments of meeting" between therapist and patient. However, training residents to use humor in psychotherapy requires more individualized attention in supervision and classroom seminars. Factors such as individual proclivities for humorous repartee, mentalizing capacity, and an authentic interest in adding humor to the session may be necessary to incorporate spontaneous humor into one's technique. New findings from the areas of attachment theory, neuroscience, and right-hemisphere learning are providing potential opportunities for sophisticated teaching of the use of humor in psychotherapy.

El humor y la dimensión creativa en la psicoterapia

En el presente trabajo se realiza un recorrido por las principales teorías del humor relacionándolas con diferentes concepciones sobre la creatividad. Finalmente se presentan algunas indicaciones para el uso del humor en la psicoterapia, señalando los aspectos positivos y negativos del mismo.

On the differentiated use of humor and joke in psychotherapy.

The controversial discussion in the literature about the use and the effect of humor in psychotherapy, particularly in psychoanalysis, is far from being concluded. Even if the legitimacy of the use of humor in psychotherapy today is generally accepted (Baker, 1993; Christie, 1994; Frings, 1996; Grotjahn, 1957; Pasquali, 1986; Poland, 1990; Rose, 1992), opinions differ widely about what kind of humor, when, and in connection to which psychopathology it can or should be used, as well as about the dangers and precaution of its use. One of the earliest critics, Lawrence Kubie, concluded his 1971 article, “The Destructive Potential of Humor in Psychotherapy,” with the words: “Humor has its place in life. Let us keep it there by acknowledging that one place where it has a very limited role, if any, is in psychotherapy” (p. 866). There is no doubt that Kubie’s warning, that humor between the therapist and the patient may blur the aggression and animosity of the patient, “to mask hostility behind a false facade of camaraderie or to blunt the sharpness of disagreement,” (p. 37) and be used to seduce the therapist, should be kept in mind. Some authors however (Zillmann, 1983), differentiate little or not at all between benevolent, friendly humor and cynical, sarcastic humor, or even speak about humor in general as malevolent. Following in Freud’s footsteps, Sarah Kofman’s central statement (1986) in her book The Laughing Thirds is: “One always needs someone who is smaller than oneself” (p. 105). For the philosopher Henri Bergson (1900), humor was to such an extent identical with biting, mocking humor that his book The Laughter should rather have been entitled The Ridicule.

Humor and wellness in clinical intervention

Preface by William F. Fry, Jr. Introduction by Waleed A. Salameh The Use of Humor in Psychotherapy by Harvey Mindess Humor in Treating the Mentally Ill by Karyn Buxman An Emotional Skills Self-Improvement System for Personal Growth and Its Facilitative Absorption through Humor by Waleed A. Salameh The Importance of Humor in the Psychotherapy of Children and Adolescents by William Bernet Humor in Career Counseling by Ofra Nevo Comedy, Tragedy, and Empathy by Sue Chance Humor and the 12-Step Recovery Process by Stephanie Brown Survivor Humor: The Role of Humor in Coping with Disasters by Sandra E. Ritz Humor, Biology, and Psychotherapy by William F. Fry Funny ... you don't sound like a supervisor! The Use of Humor in Psychotherapy Supervision by Ed Dunkelblau, Barrett McRay, Mat McFadden Research and Clinical Humor and Psychotherapy (1993-1998) Bibliography

Learning to Use Humor in Psychotherapy

The use of humor in psychotherapy is a controversial topic, with some therapists supporting its use and others warning against its risks. For therapists in training, using humor and lightheart-edness effectively can be particularly difficult because of the anxiety that most beginning therapists feel. However, humor can be useful for trainees precisely because it helps to reduce the self-doubt that is common among beginners. In this paper I discuss how I used humor to help a client with obsessive compulsive disorder while at the same time helping myself to grow as a therapist.

Review of The Use of Humor in Psychotherapy

Review of The Use of Humor in Psychotherapy

The use of humor in psychotherapy.

Humor can be a useful treatment technique in the hands of some psychotherapists. It may help the patient to see painful life events and situations from less threatening perspectives, and can take the anxiety and guilt out of many difficult circumstances and incidents. Humor can be valuable in talking with parents about the problems of their adolescent children, in working with adolescents themselves, in discussing difficulties encountered in the workplace and in social environments, in decreasing obstructive awe of the therapist and apprehensiveness about treatment, in dealing with problems such as male sexual impotence, and in many other areas. Some therapists, however, handle humor awkwardly; in their hands it misfires or falls flat, and they should avoid it.

Primate Calls, Human Language, and Nonverbal Communication [and Comments and Reply

Etude des deux formes de communication utilisee par les humains : le langage et la communication non verbale ; cette derniere forme etant utilisee par les primates pour communiquer. Commentaires, reponse de l'auteur.

Humor in counseling and psychotherapy: a 20-year retrospective.

This article briefly annotates the development of research and theorizing on the use of humor in psychotherapy. Beginning in 1970 and continuing through 1990, the main literature was cursorily scanned. A total of 67 sources are offered for bibliographic use. Sadly, tangential forms of humor such as fun, mirth, frivolity, songs, jokes, puns, witticisms, and other forms of humor are not as readily addressed or investigated.

Evaluating the systematic use of humor in psychotherapy with adolescents

Adolescents often experience psychological difficulties associated with the demands and changes of puberty. Humor can be an effective response to express troublesome emotions associated with aggression. Self-descriptions of an adolescent client demonstrate the value of a controlled use of humor in individual psychotherapy for certain persons in this developmental age period.

Children's use of Humor in Psychotherapy

Instances of humor are analyzed in regard to theme, target, form, function, and relationship to the child's personality and development