Humor in evaluating and treating children and adolescents.
Humor can provide useful information during the psychiatric evaluation of children and adolescents and can also facilitate the therapeutic process. Clinical examples demonstrate how humor is useful as a diagnostic tool; how it can be used to shape the therapeutic relationship; and the role of humor as a therapeutic technique. Humor may help the child and adolescent patient explore feelings and may help the therapist deal with resistance. In some circumstances, the humor itself can become an agent of change. Humor has been used in the treatment of depression, aggression, social ineptitude, and conduct problems. Both the benefits and the risks of using humor are discussed.
Department of Psychiatry, Vanderbilt University, and the Vanderbilt Child and Adolescent Psychiatric Hospital, Nashville, Tennessee.
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