Are you familiar with work that examines the effect of humor on therapeutic alliance and ruptures? client mentalizing? other outcome measures?
Alternatively, can you point me to a clinician's description of his or her use of humor in therapy?
I know about these two references: Article Some reflections on humour in psychoanalysis
and https://www.psicoterapiarelacional.es/Portals/0/eJournalCeIR/V10N3_2016/17_Parejo-Marin_el%20sentido%20del%20humor%20como%20encuentro_Premio-Poster.pdf
I recommend the following articles:
Franzini, L. R. (2001). Humor in therapy: The case for training therapists in its uses and risks. The Journal of general psychology, 128(2), 170-193.
Dziegielewski, S. F. (2003). Humor: An essential communication tool in therapy. International Journal of Mental Health, 32(3), 74-90.
Sultanoff, S. M. (2013). Integrating humor into psychotherapy: Research, theory, and the necessary conditions for the presence of therapeutic humor in helping relationships. The humanistic psychologist, 41(4), 388.
Scott, C. V., Hyer, L. A., & McKenzie, L. C. (2015). The healing power of laughter: The applicability of humor as a psychotherapy technique with depressed and anxious older adults. Social Work in Mental Health, 13(1), 48-60.
Yonatan-Leus, R., Tishby, O., Shefler, G., & Wiseman, H. (2017). Therapists’ honesty, humor styles, playfulness, and creativity as outcome predictors: A retrospective study of the therapist effect. Psychotherapy Research, 1-10.
Fox, L. E. (2016). The Use of Humor in Family Therapy: Rationale and Applications. Journal of Family Psychotherapy, 27(1), 67-78.
Steve Sultanoff's website: humormatters.com is a useful place to start. You can also go to scholar.google.com and search for research on humor in therapy.
Hello, I have unfortunately no specific answer to give you. However, I think the notion of "mentalization" to understand the use of humor in psychotherapy is important. I recommend you to go through the book of A. Bateman et P. Fonagy " Mentalization-Based Treatment for Personality Disorders: A Practical Guide".
About "Humor", they write : "Humor is a key feature of effective challenge. Using humor may immediately reduce tension in a session but, most of all, it brings attention to the absurdities of life and adds an alternative perspective, thereby lessening mental pain. [...] Of course, it is necessary to gauge the sens if humor of the patient; tuning something into a "joke" can undermine an alliance, leaving the patient feeling he/sh is not being taken seriously. To this extent, using humor in challenge is an high-risk intervention, potentially giving high gain but equally rsiking a breakdown in the thetapeutic alliance if it goes wrong. Timing is the key." Therefore, it is important to evaluate the patient's level of mentalization during the session. Ask ourselves if our humorous intervention will help our patient to further mentalize.
Harold Mosak's book on humor in psychotherapy is a useful resource.
Mosak, H. H. (1987). Ha ha and aha: The role of humor in psychotherapy. Muncie, IN: Accelerated Development. ISBN 0-915202-65-4
Professor Cherniak:
Here is a PowerPoint related to "Humor and Psychology." There are some important books at the end of the PowerPoint that may give you some answers:
Dear Dr. Nilsen,
Thank you so much for this wonderful ppt. It is exactly the information I was looking for and needed.
I appreciate your time and kindness,
Loretta Collins
Within the approach of Logotherapy (Viktor E. Frankl) the technique of paradoxical intention should be applied with an element of humour to be effective
I wrote a monograph in which I provide examples of using humor in therapy in crisis situations. I am enclosing both books (one in Polish, the other in English). Maybe they will be useful to you. There is a large list of bibliographies in each book. Good luck!
Hello, I have a research around clowning in hospital settings, however, I do not research the patient, but the performer.
In Brazil there are other researchers that work in this line of study, Morgana Masseti is one of them.
I forward here my study, however, it is in Portuguese :(
Thank you for sharing your work. I can't wait to read a thoroughly different perspective.
Kindly,
Loretta
Gauri Chauhan has looked at this as the basis of her PhD research (2016) with patients who are terminally ill. The text is available to download via EThOS
Sorry for interrupting you,
Is there any article that connects the Transactional Analysis with humor? By the way, this discussion helped me a lot, so thank you for that. I hope you are doing well.
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