Send In The Clowns! …Humor as Coping Mechanism
Jun 19 at 4:04pm by Aileen
Way back in 2005 researchers at Texas A&M determined that humor - an appreciation of the absurd hilarity of life - can significantly increase Hope, and that hopefulness helps people cope with stresses in daily life and during illnesses as well.
In January of this year a communications professor at Canisius College in Buffalo, New York, demonstrated that in a medical setting, laughter is the best medicine. Humor helps both the doctors and the patients cope. The finding was extended to the workplace and to educational situations as well, eventually reaching the conclusion that regardless of the content, humor seems to be beneficial and productive. It helps to get the point across in almost any situation.
Then on June 12, 2008 Alastaire Clarke published his Pattern Recognition Theory of Humor, which purportedly explains the reason that humor is common to all human societies. In Humor Shown to be Fundamental to Our Success as a Species, Clarke claims that humor is fundamantal to the evolution of human beings, and continues to be important in the cognitive development of infants and children.
Alas, Clarke’s Pattern Recognition Theory can’t tell us what’s funny or why, so it probably won’t be used by comedy writers or clowns to formulate their skits any time soon. And while humor can progress from basic slapstick to childish jokes to ridicule to satire, he does not attempt to explain why slapstick still makes us laugh even if we’ve progressed all the way to dry British satire. A clown would have a handy explanation for that, but I don’t think Clarke asked one. Oh, well.
The articles do make a strong case for the survival value of humor to human beings, and that may be all we really need to know about it.
Links:
Humor Can Increase Hope, Research Shows
Laughter is the Best Medicine
4 Responses for "Send In The Clowns! …Humor as Coping Mechanism"
GiggleMed
June 19th, 2008 at 7:14 pm
1As a physician, I can tell you that there were multiple times in my career that I’ve thought about leaving - there’s sort of a cyclical burnout. It comes and goes - and by no means is it limited to docs. I’ve seen it in nurses, EMTs, nurse practitioners and other health professionals.
Sometimes humor keeps us going. But it is a difficult road to walk when you talk about humor and medicine. What is funny to some may be offensive to others. The important thing is to realize that most of the time, we are laughing at ourselves or our professions or the circumstances - not individuals.
Aileen
June 20th, 2008 at 11:07 pm
2I hear you, Gigglemed! I’m a clown by day-trade… have been ever since my son was in the hospital with gnarly appendicitis and those kids all needed a good laugh. It’s an art form, a characterization of archetypes. Life is absurd. Sometimes death is too. Humans do have an innate appreciation of that! ยง;o)
» Research shows that humor is fundamental … thrive
June 21st, 2008 at 12:11 pm
3[…] shows that humor is fundamental to our success as a species and one of the keys to coping with a variety of […]
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July 30th, 2008 at 10:48 pm
4[…] in to work in a plain paper wrapper, and do the whole comedy routine in the break room at lunch. A good laugh is always good medicine, they […]
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