Humour and Anxiety in Psychotherapy

Since working as a psychotherapist, I have found
that the clients who have best been able to handle
life, have been the humorous ones. I wrote about
this for my M.A. at Regent''s Colege. I assess
anxiety from an existential position that looks at
how man relates to his setting, as well as how
society''s cultural values affect it. Humour is
addressed existentially in the light of the anxiety
of the characters in Beckett''s ''Waiting for Godot''.
Anxiety in a psychoanalytic way is seen in terms
of human development, in the context of
Superego/Ego relations. The child''s relationship
to his mother is assessed regarding how her
being humorous may affect this psychic-agent
alliance. This piece analyses how humour affects
anxiety in case studies by Spinelli, Yalom and
Freud. How my own humour affected a client''s
anxiety is also considered. This is a clinically
useful and original work that will appeal to
psychotherapists and counsellors, as it looks at
a subject largely neglected in psychotherapy :
how humour can enhance working with the
constant factor of anxiety in therapy. For further
information, please go to :
www.rjosephukcptherapist.co.uk.

Autorentext
This work explores the relationship between humour and anxiety from an existential and psychoanalytic view, in terms of a literary reference and human development. It also deals with how humour affects anxiety in case studies by Spinelli, Freud and Yalom. Finally, the author considers how his own therapeutic humour affected a client's anxiety.

Klappentext
Since working as a psychotherapist, I have found that the clients who have best been able to handle life, have been the humorous ones. I wrote about this for my M.A. at Regent's Colege. I assess anxiety from an existential position that looks at how man relates to his setting, as well as how society's cultural values affect it. Humour is addressed existentially in the light of the anxiety of the characters in Beckett's 'Waiting for Godot'. Anxiety in a psychoanalytic way is seen in terms of human development, in the context of Superego/Ego relations. The child's relationship to his mother is assessed regarding how her being humorous may affect this psychic-agent alliance. This piece analyses how humour affects anxiety in case studies by Spinelli, Yalom and Freud. How my own humour affected a client's anxiety is also considered. This is a clinically useful and original work that will appeal to psychotherapists and counsellors, as it looks at a subject largely neglected in psychotherapy : how humour can enhance working with the constant factor of anxiety in therapy. For further information, please go to : www.rjosephukcptherapist.co.uk.