(continuing from page 47, Humor as Characterological...) involuntary internal response, these thoughts were part of the ongoing process. Trusting them meant that the inquiry about his family atmosphere, in this instance, was more experientially meaningful in a way that comes closer to meeting Meltzer’s criterion for an ‘inspired’ form of intervention. Dx 3.14 Dysfunnia In concluding, I would like to recommend that the lack of a sense of humor is a serious symptom deserving of a separate diagnostic category. I would like to propose the term “Dysfunnia” with the numeric designation 3.14 or Pi as in ‘pie in the face in all of the old comic routines’ to indicate the complete absence of a sense of humor. This dire infliction is best treated countertransferentially - the analyst must demonstrate the willingness to both privately and publicly surrender to her own spontaneous resources. In effect, doing so demonstrates both the willingness and courage to enter life on a less controlled and more opened and vulnerable basis. Spontaneity expressed as humor carries an affective contagion that rarely fails in reaching the patient in an analytically desired way. In neurobiological terms, it is readily able to directly tap the more emotion oriented right brain functions that account for deep psychoanalytic change. Existentially, the spontaneous use of humor generates an experience that clearly allows both patient and analyst to share in a momentary triumph over the more tragic elements of life. Mocking life, humor temporarily allows us to experience and see life’s absurdity. As the pleasurable affect of laughter recedes giving way to the more serious business at hand, this manic instance of absurdity has joined patient and analyst in a new way that often creates a more novel and healthier
My conviction that psychoanalysis is ultimately about the ‘love of freedom and the freedom to love’ makes the comedic a natural and most useful companion in traveling the often depressive and sometimes dull roads paved by the more tragic elements of the patient’s difficulties in living.
Bob Katz, PhD
distance from which the patient’s difficulties in living can be viewed. All totaled, it seems that the imparting of humor is highly consistent with if not identical to the general spirit of psychoanalytic discourse. It is a loving attempt to bring some relief from the vulnerabilities that haunt us all. n
Robert J. Katz, PhD, is on faculty at WCSPP, NYU PostDoc, and Institute for Contemporary Psychotherapy; he is also on staff at Phelps Memorial Hospital and Visiting Faculty at Manhattan Institute.
Watch the YouTube video that has nearly 17 milllion views and that put the WCSPP Retreat into hysterics.
>> 47