Treating those who fail to take themselves seriously: pathological aspects of humor

A method of analyzing humor was presented. Patients are first made aware of their "being amused" by bringing their smiling and laughing to their attention. They can be then be led to see that their external life situation has predisposed them to experience an intrapsychic event--the spontaneous emergence of antithetical ideation into consciousness which has, in turn, given rise to three beliefs: (1) the ir-responsibility, (2) the incongruity, and (3) the inconsequentiality of the production and nature of this ideation. Two patients were presented to illustrate how foreknowledge of the three beliefs could aid the therapist in working through what might otherwise have been intractable pathology. The author is, generally, in favor of a more relaxed attitude about the use of humor and nonverbal expressive behavior in general, but urges that this material be integrated within the framework of a structured cognitive approach.