Response to lead Blogger "Paige"

In Paige's blog post she chose to write about humor in a way that we have never specifically talked about in class. In the post, she focuses on two different ways that humor can be used as a treatment to people with psychological disorders. She looks at psychotherapy which is defined as “the treatment of mental disorder by psychological rather than medical means”. She gives two different techniques that are used to do this.

The first technique is the “The "I Don't Know Why I am Laughing" Trick”. Paige says, “Any type of laughter can be good laughter, even if it is forced”. This technique encourages people to force themselves to laugh which is supposed to help and relieve symptoms of stress and anxiety.

The second technique that Paige discusses is “Open Ended Cartoons”. In this technique, a psychotherapist will show cartoons to their patients. Then “These cartoons, specifically chosen for each individual patient is meant to somehow relate to a struggle that the patient is currently experiencing, without being blunt”. The result of doing this explains that these cartoons are supposed to help and describe their problems.

Paige brought an interesting perspective of the world of humor to her blog post. Personally, I would have never thought that the mere fact of forcing oneself to laugh could help to solve any psychological problems. I also thought it was interesting that she brought in Freud's perspective on humor and related it into her post. She brought up the point that “humor is used to alleviate anxiety, pressure, increase feelings of positivity and motivation”. Which she then tied into Freud's thoughts are feelings on humor.