In a message dated 11/13/99 1:09:39 PM Eastern Standard Time,
[log in to unmask] writes:

<< Hello!
 i am looking for books and essays on gestalt and humor. should any
 come to your mind, please let me know. thanx a lot in advance!
 best, andrea
  >>
 Dear Andrea,
    I have sometimes been surprised by clients at the end of their therapy
with me when, in summarizing what stands out for them of their sessions, they
tell me they appreciated my use of humor. Since it is rare that I'll share a
joke with them, I recognize that most of my humor comes from picking up on
some of the more ideosyncratic foibles of their everyday existence and being
able to help them find humor in what they are doing or to laugh at
themselves.
    I served on a doctoral dissertation committee several years ago on the
role of humor in psychotherapy and the guy was so damn serious about it being
scientific that it became an ironic joke. Wish I could remember his name. If
I think of it I'll let you know.
    An article I read early on, while training at the Gestalt Institute of
Cleveland, that seemed to give me support for using humor in therapy was
Sheldon Kopp's "The Wizard of Oz Behind the Couch," in Psychology Today,
March 1970. If you have a hard time locating the magazine, it was also
published in Anthony Banet's book, Creative Psychotherapy, 1976, University
Associates, LaJolla, CA.
    I have gotten some good belly laughs and gentle giggles when reading the
humorous glances at Gestalt therapy in Glenn Ellenbogen's books, published by
W.W. Norton: Oral Sadism and the Vegetarian Personality, Freudulent
Encounters for the Jung at Heart and The Primal Wimper -- all of which come
from the Journal of Polymorphous Perversity.
    Lastly (for now at least) you might read Harold Mosak's book, Ha Ha and
Aha: The Role of Humor in Psychotherapy, 1987, Accelerated Development, Inc.,
Muncie, IN 47304.
    "What's that fly doing in my soup?" asked the diner of the waitress.
"Looks like the backstroke to me." she said.
    Recently I asked an elderly nursing home patient, "Did anyone in your
family ever suffer from insanity?" She said, "Nope, they all enjoyed it!"

Good humor on your journey, Ansel Woldt