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Why Don’t Psychotherapists
Laugh?
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1 The capacity for humour is one of life’s blessings. So why is it so lacking in the
8 theory and even the practice of analysis and therapy? This is the first book of its
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2: kind about a neglected and even taboo topic: the place of enjoyment and good
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t humour in psychotherapy.
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] Why Don’t Psychotherapists Laugh? traces the development of professional
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g psychotherapy and its almost exclusive focus on life’s tragedies. This may natur-
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i ally suit some practitioners; others may learn that a proper therapeutic persona is
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n serious, even solemn. But what are they and their clients missing? Ann Shearer
a draws on ideas about humour and its functions from antiquity to contemporary
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a, stand-u p comedy and beyond, to explore how it works in both mind and body. She
ni shows how even the blackest humour may yield psychological information, and
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o how humour can help build therapeutic relationships and be a catalyst for healing.
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l Through real- life stories from consulting rooms, told by both therapists and clients,
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the author shows how a sense of enjoyment and good humour can restore life to
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o people in distress – and how destructive a lack of these may become.
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t This book provides a resource for further reflection on the therapeutic task. It
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rs will also intrigue anyone who wants to know more about the kinds of people
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v psycho therapists are, what they do and why. Written in a highly accessible style,
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U Why Don’t Psychotherapists Laugh? will appeal to psychotherapists with a
[ range of training and allegiances, their teachers in vocational and academic insti-
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b tutions and their clients, as well as to readers with an interest in psychotherapy,
d humour and psychology.
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l Ann Shearer is a Jungian analyst based in London. She lectures internationally
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w and for two years was a Royal Literary Fund Writing Fellow at Imperial
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D College London. Previously a journalist and consultant in social welfare, her
many articles and ten books include (with Pamela Donleavy) From Ancient Myth
to Modern Healing: Themis: goddess of heart-s oul, justice and reconciliation
(Routledge, 2008).
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Why Don’t
Psychotherapists Laugh?
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3 Enjoyment and the consulting room
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Di Ann Shearer
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First published 2016
by Routledge
2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN
and by Routledge
711 Third Avenue, New York, NY 10017
7 Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business
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0 © 2016 Ann Shearer
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y The right of Ann Shearer to be identified as author of this work
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a has been asserted by her in accordance with sections 77 and 78
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r of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
b
e All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or
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3 reproduced or utilised in any form or by any electronic,
1 mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented,
8 including photocopying and recording, or in any information
5 storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from
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2 the publishers.
2
t Trademark notice: Product or corporate names may be trademarks
a
] or registered trademarks, and are used only for identification and
o explanation without intent to infringe.
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ie British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data
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A catalogue record for this book is available from the British
n Library
a
S Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data
a, Names: Shearer, Ann, 1943– author.
ni Title: Why don’t psychotherapists laugh? : enjoyment and the
or consulting room / Ann Shearer.
if Description: Abingdon, Oxon ; New York, NY : Routledge, 2016.
al | Includes bibliographical references.
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Identifiers: LCCN 2015039744| ISBN 9781138899605 (hardback) |
of ISBN 9781138899612 (pbk.)
y Subjects: LCSH: Laughter–Psychological aspects. | Psychotherapy. |
t Psychotherapists.
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rs Classification: LCC BF575.L3 S44 2016 | DDC 616.89/14–dc23
ve LC record available at http://lccn.loc.gov/2015039744
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U ISBN: 978-1-138-89960-5 (hbk)
[ ISBN: 978-1-138-89961-2 (pbk)
y ISBN: 978-1-315-70773-0 (ebk)
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d Typeset in Times New Roman
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d by Wearset Ltd, Boldon, Tyne and Wear
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Contents
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1 Acknowledgements vii
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2 1 Starting points 1
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o 2 A goddess laughs 11
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n Humour and the healers 17
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i 3 In theory 19
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li 4 Looking outwards 29
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o 5 Looking inwards 39
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ve What’s so funny? 49
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[ 6 Senses of humour 51
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e 7 Shadow stories 61
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nl 8 Bodies and brains 69
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In the consulting room 79
9 Thresholds 81
10 Power and promise 89
vi Contents
11 Bridges and boundaries 99
12 No laughing matter? 109
7 13 Stories of life and death 117
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e Bibliography 131
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3 Index 139
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Acknowledgements
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1 As a wise old friend used to say, ‘We all shout loudest about our own weakest
8 points’. Ever since my childhood, people have told me that I’m ‘too serious’. So
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2: thanks go first to all those many friends, colleagues, patients and clients who
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t have taught me so much over the years about how to lighten up and see the
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] world through a more humorous lens. A particular mention goes to the Associ-
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g ation of Independent Psychotherapists in London, who many years ago set me
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i thinking when they invited me to talk at their conference on ‘Uses and Abuses of
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n Humour in Psychotherapy’.
a None of my patients appears in these pages. But other people’s do, and I’m
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a, grateful to Jane Haynes, Stephen Grosz, Donald Kalsched and Irvin Yalom for their
ni generous response to the use I’ve made of their therapeutic stories. Between them,
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o they draw on the relational, psychoanalytic, Jungian and existential traditions. This
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l was not deliberate on my part, but it’s a happy illustration that appreciation of the
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humorous is far from being the preserve of any one therapeutic approach.
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o Acknowledgements are also due to:
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rs Bill Hamilton as the Literary Executor of the Estate of the Late Sonia Brownell
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v Orwell for permission to quote from Nineteen Eighty-F our by George Orwell
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U (Copyright © George Orwell, 1949).
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b The Provost and Scholars of King’s College, Cambridge and the Society of
d Authors as the Literary Representative of the Estate of E.M. Forster for permis-
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a sion to quote from Howard’s End.
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w Random House, W.W. Norton, Perseus Books and the Marsh Agency Ltd on
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D behalf of Sigmund Freud Copyrights for permission to quote from The Standard
Edition of the Complete Psychological Works of Sigmund Freud.
Taylor & Francis and Princeton University Press for permission to quote from
The Collected Works of C.G. Jung.
Full details of these publications are in the Bibliography.
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Chapter 1
Starting points
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1 Looking back over more than two decades as a Jungian analyst, I count myself
8 fortunate. I think of all I’ve learned about the extraordinary, even awe- inspiring
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2: endurance of the human spirit, of the infinitely subtle ways of psyche in its quest
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t for self-f ulfilment, of the variety of people in whose stories I’ve been privileged
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g abiding intellectual stimulation. As in life itself, there have been times of
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i boredom, irritation, anger and grief. But these have been hugely outweighed by
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n the interest, affection and flashes of shared delight. Overall though, one thing
a seems to have been in short supply: an enjoyment, even celebration, of what
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a, makes life a humorous business as well as a testing and sometimes tragic one.
ni This quality is not easy to define – not least because each person will find it in
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o their own way. But we recognise it when it comes to us, when we smile or laugh
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l or even guffaw. And we know the dull heaviness that can weigh on us when it’s
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not there. In this book, I call it ‘humour’ – a catchall for that sense of the humor-
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o ous which enables us to live more good-h umouredly with what life may bring,
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t and so be more open to its joys as well as its sorrows.
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rs That this quality has been neglected in discussions within and about psycho-
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v therapy seems peculiar, when we consider that the rest of the world has known
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U since time immemorial about humour’s power to heal the suffering mind and
[ heart. The colleagues I know best have been other analysts and depth psycholo-
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b gists who at least (and sometimes at most) share a perception that the conscious
d world of rational mind is underpinned and often subverted by something we call
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a ‘the unconscious’. Within that spectrum, I count myself a fairly classical
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l Jungian. That must inevitably inform my perceptions, but I have travelled more
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w widely too and found the same: psychotherapy and humour just don’t seem easy
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D together. The literature seems to bear this out: I’ve been quite surprised to dis-
cover how seldom humour gets even a mention in professional textbooks. This
book is about why this might be so, and what psychotherapists, those who
consult them and indeed others might be missing.
Whatever may be going on in the confidentiality of the consulting room,
something seems to happen once we therapists appear in public, once we present
a professional persona to the wider world and even to each other. I think of
