“The Psychology of Humor” Meeting Report

Last September 28^th, 15 colleagues gathered at the Training Institute for Mental Health in Manhattan for an in-depth discussion on the psychoanalysis and psychology of humor. The presenters were David Beisel, “Humor as a Psychohistorical Source,” Tom Ferraro, “Anatomy of a Joke: How to change Misery into Mirth,” Ruth Lijtmaer, “The Use of Humor by Analyst and Patient,” and Burton Seitler, “A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Psychohistory Forum.”

The meeting was significant for me not only because of the topic—I am fascinated by the complex role that humor plays in the work that analysts do and in the lives of people in general—but also because it was the first Psychohistory Forum gathering I have attended. I didn’t know what to expect from the meeting; I was very happy to find a mix of psychoanalytic depth, intellectualism, humanity, and common sense. The meeting didn’t focus solely on the treatment room. In fact, we talked more about humor and our society rather than humor and analysis.

The participants included 10 women and five men, with three of the men being presenters. Twelve of the 15 participants are psychotherapists, with nine trained or training as analysts and many

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present having multiple professional competencies. There were two historians, one political scientist, and a few social workers. Irene Rosenberg Javors moderated the discussion.

The discussion was quite intense and fruitful. We talked about what is funny, what isn’t, and why. We talked about the people who tell jokes and who are comedians—for example, Lenny Bruce and Jackie Mason—and what makes them funny. It’s not necessarily the jokes they tell or the words they say, but how they say them and the emotion that lies behind them (to use analytic terms, the latent rather than manifest content).

The group decided that in humor, there is a certain suppression and repression of affect, which we connected to the subject matter. Important points made during the meeting included that humor can be:

• An expression of aggression or to cope with aggression, pain, or suffering.
• A method of breaking down societal denial.
• Intended to wake the listener up from a habit of thought.
• A method of disarming someone who might be hurt or offended.
• A way to mark a person’s identity or bond them to a group— many types of communication are known as ethnic in-jokes.
• A method of regressing.

It was pointed out that while totalitarian states have no humor, the people in them do, which has much to do with anxiety over powerlessness and deprivation. Humor often comes out in situations where we don’t know if we should laugh or cry. There was considerable discussion of the humor of the Holocaust, with most—but not all—people disliking Begnini’s Life is Beautiful (1998) as a fairytale of a father taking care of his son, even in the extreme situation of the Holocaust. It was noted that Clio’s Psyche had a special seven-article feature, “Humor and the Holocaust,” on this movie and topic. We all agreed that humor has been a way for persecuted people to cope with and survive trauma; Lena Wurmuller’s 1975 Seven Beauties on the Holocaust drew mentionable praise.

We didn’t neglect the role humor, laughter, and play have in

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human development—how smiles and laughter are a crucial way for babies and their caregivers to bond, and for children and then adults to use humor to connect and interact with others throughout their lives. Humor is a way for analysts to be empathic with their patients, and for patients to express themselves in what they hope will be a safe way.

If you asked me what I hoped to take away from the meeting, I would have said I wanted to learn something about life, society, culture, and the psyche that would help me in my analytic work. My interest in psychohistory grows out of my belief (one held, of course, by many other analysts) that I cannot understand my patient unless I look to the community, culture, and society that shapes him or her. I also wanted to be part of an interesting discussion that would get me thinking about issues I had not considered before. So, humor was an ideal topic for my first meeting held by the Forum.

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