Dr. Michael Titze observes that some individuals are controlled by a fear of being the objects of derisive laughter. In this interview he discusses with Dr. Waleed Salameh how the fear of laughter develops and some innovative approaches which he has developed for helping persons overcome it.
W.S.: What is the Pinocchio Complex?
M.T.: The Pinocchio Complex is a phenomenon that refers to those with gelotophobia (fear of being laughted at). These people have never learned to appreciate humor and laughter positively. I see this condition as being analogous to Pinocchio who was a marionette or puppet made of wood. In the physical sphere, many emotions manifest themselves in our muscles. We communicate by the way we carry and present ourselves. When fear is experienced every being gets stiff and develops muscular tension. This is for instance the case when a mouse is confronted by a snake and has no chance to either disappear or attack the snake.
The fight or flight responses provide the opportunity to attack or flee. These are adaptive mechanisms that have survival value. But there is a third scenario that unfolds when there is no chance to run or fight: that is to develop a state of muscular tension.
W.S.: This would be the equivalent of what possums might do when they are attacked by other predators. They hang from trees by their tails and pretend to be dead. The expression «playing possum» comes from that and refers precisely to this psychological state of stiffness and apprehension or complete stupor that the person is stuck with following the attack of deformed humor.
M.T.: Generally the muscular tension is associated with emotional panic. Panic in turn means that the individual is experiencing a significant degree of fear. In this situation there seems to be no possibility for using one's élan vital (or life energy) for aggressive purposes, like attacking the aggressor, or for fleeing.
W.S.: What you are saying is that these people are completely stuck, psychologically frozen in time, because of that experience.
M.T.: That's right. How does this reaction develop? In my opinion, people get into this reaction pattern as the result of certain shame experiences which, in many cases, can be traced back to childhood. These people were forced by their reference persons to behave in a way that was incompatible with the natural inclinations to be aggressive or run away. They had to behave in a very strict, normative, and formalistic way. Otherwise, they would have suffered love withdrawal or certain forms of mental abuse such as being put down, being humiliated, laughed at, or not taken seriously. Consequently, they repeatedly experienced shame. Self-confidence and self-esteem could not emerge in a sufficient way. In these people, the affective conviction of being a real human is not apparent.
W.S.: You say there are physical characteristics that these individuals develop. What are those physical characteristics?
M.T.: The French philosopher Henri Bergson wrote a fantastic book entitled «Laughter». In this book Bergson precisely described the Pinocchio Complex when he compared people being laughed at or being cynically put down with puppets or marionettes. This is exactly what the Pinocchio persona is: a wooden puppet.
If someone is unable to develop a sense of belonging in his childhood because s/he didn't experience the feeling of being loved and estimated by his or her parents, the result according to Bergson, is that this person would be unable to fit into a group in a relaxed way. So s/he will tend to separate from groups. Such individuals don't develop adequate social skills. Shame casts them into the role of a shunned defensive character. They hide away, they are loners. They do not take any risks in their social lives. The main purpose of their lives is to protect themselves from being laughed at by others. This is what the term gelotophobia means! Bergson says that these people are punished by society for being ridiculous.
W.S.: So being laughed at is their punishment for not being sociable. To put it in a succinct form, the Pinocchio Complex seems to refer to those destructive after effects of laughter on the personality of those who have been the object of derision.
M.T.: The most sensitive phase is puberty. Generally, younger children are not interested in not fitting into the norms of society. But in puberty, youngsters carefully examine how others behave. If they do not know the guiding norms or what is expected of them, then they are laughed at. Subsequently, they take on the role of an outsider. For instance, they may be laughed at because they dress differently, are unable to express themselves clearly, or because they do not have dates. The result is that they ultimately behave in a very peculiar way. They develop the Pinocchio Complex.
W.S.: What are the special characteristics that you would identify as peculiar to those with the Pinocchio Complex?
M.T.: They behave in a way that is typical for shame. For instance, they may blush. The physical tension brings them to tremble, shortness of breath and to stutter. Their appearance is not lively. Their facial expression is that of a mask. Their arms and legs may not move in a spontaneous way. When they are stalking around, this gives them a funny appearance so that others may watch them with amusement. This, again, provokes more tension because they try to deliberately control their spontaneous body movements which is physically impossible. Subsequently their appearance approximates what Pinocchio was supposed to look like since he was not made out of flesh and blood.
W.S.: What common qualities do you see in those who view humor negatively?
M.T.: They are lonesome and distrustful. Their attitude is «agelotic» (being unable to appreciate laughter) because they have never experienced that laughter can bring people together or that it can help cement individuals to create a community. The initial reason for this attitude was that they felt separated from their early reference person. This reference person, in many cases a self-centered mother, lacked a smiling face. The face they recollect corresponds with the petrified countenance of a sphinx: being blank, constantly disinterested, and cold as ice. This is the agelotic face of shame! When infants are confronted with such a face, the «interpersonal bridge» (Kaufman) cannot be constructed. These children experience themselves as being unconnected to others. They do not experience laughter as a positive means of shared identity. These children are left, emotionally, «in the lurch». So they can't develop what Alfred Adler has called a community feeling. Their fellows prove to be hostile strangers who treat them in a cruel way. And one weapon these strangers use is derisory laughter. This is what dissociated children fear so much, and not without reason! It is my conviction that being laughed at is one of the most cruel ways of dehumanizing a person.
W.S.: What are your objectives in the treatment of these individuals?
M.T.: In our therapy groups the «therapeutic clown» serves as a co-therapist. S/he becomes the encouraging model for those suffering from gelotophobia. All clowns expose themselves in public with the intention to be the laughing stock for others. But they don't suffer from it. Those who suffer from gelotophobic symptoms therefore need to learn to deliberately behave as clowns. They grow from developing the same cognitive pattern and the same emotional and behavioral attitudes a clown has. This experience helps to liberate them from the feelings of hurt they may consciously or unconsciously associate with laughter.
Furthermore, the therapeutic clown is a good behavioral model for healthy children. The way children behave is never perfect. You can look at the child in two ways. If you look in a normative way, a child is someone who makes a lot of mistakes and is, therefore, objectively inferior and weak. If you look, however, at the emotional strength of children you can recognize their creative power and their capability to enjoy life. They can be spontaneous and are able to laugh in an open way. Many people look at the child in the first way, evaluating the child's behavior under the strict ideal norms of adulthood. As a result, discouraged children may come to the conviction that everything they do is inadequate.
The introduction of the clown figure into therapy, allows him or her to serve as an auxiliary ego. For example, the therapeutic clown may come and whisper peculiar, crazy, or mad things into the patient's ears. By serving as a model of assertiveness, the therapeutic clown can mediate a momentous sense of strength and adequacy.
Thus, the therapeutic clown is the ego double of a strong child. In this context, my own professional role as a «humor therapist» is to give analyzing hints - to serve in some way as a movie director.
W.S.: What are some of the specific techniques which the therapeutic clown may use under your direction to effect change?
M.T.: In my opinion the most effective training is to become a «contrary clown» because there are many forms of clown behavior.
W.S.: Like what?
M.T.: The harlequin for instance is a competent clown but the buffoon is the stupid one. He is not able to do anything correct. He falls down because he wears terrible shoes and so forth. This type of clown who does the worse is the contrary clown! He does the opposite of what is expected of him.
American Indians knew this type of clown. They called him the «trickster». He always did the opposite of what was expected in the respective society. In all cultures you have this opposite makeup in some form. When people suffer from gelotophobia, we teach them to consciously behave as a contrary clown, that is to do the opposite of what they have been trying to do so far. This makes it possible for them to gradually lose their gelotophobic anxiety.
For instance, in our groups the protagonists have to behave in a very stupid way. When they speak, they are encouraged to behave like rascals. For instance, we teach them to put their tongue between their teeth or take in some water and keep it in their mouth while speaking. Another exercise is to have them walk and move as if they were jumping jacks.
W.S.: In a way you are exaggerating their symptoms in order to extinguish them.
M.T.: In our groups, they learn to systematically behave in a ridiculous way and use this behavioral appearance as a weapon to bring others into a state of tension. When, for instance, a psychologist comes as a visitor to the group, a group member has to address him or her and behave in such a strange and peculiar way that the visitor does not know how to respond. So that, paradoxically, s/he gets the impression that s/he is being laughed at by those who are suffering from gelotophobia! The intention is to teach group participants to handle a peculiar and embarassing situation or behavior in an assertive mode. This means that they can behave assertively by being intentionally ridiculous.
W.S.: You believe that the discharge of aggression is necessary to get rid of negative patterns. Is that a part of your work?
M.T.: That is true. I was somewhat inspired by the work of psychologist George Bach and his theory that «creative aggression» is not dangerous on any account. We are living in a time when people think that aggressivity is something very negative. Bach's idea is not to be afraid of non-destructive forms of aggressivity. I use the humor groups to introduce non-destructive aggressivity into the lives of persons who fear the destructive aggressivity of others. In this context we make use of specific potentialities of humor, especially the forms of humor that use elements of clownish behavior.
W.S.: So one technique is to put water in one's mouth and speak while holding the water in the mouth. Another is to have people act like a marionette with their arms and hands. The third one is to work with a clown to express embarassing forms of behavior.
M.T.: Being intentionally ridiculous in front of a group helps gelotophobic patients overcome their inhibitions. Another good technique is to use elements of Zen to get those afraid of laughter to stop using their restricting logical thinking. Excessive focus on logical thought is a major cause of gelotophobic tension. These individuals think too much. They are also involved in «double thinking» when they think that other persons are thinking critically about them - and so on! This reinforces their feelings of shame over and over. One therapeutic goal, therefore, is to get these patients to think less so they can react more spontaneously. Consciously acting in a manner that is silly or ridiculous is surely a paradoxical type of action.
For example, when someone is asked why s/he is blushing s/he may say, «Because the snow on the Himalayas is very warm». Or, «There are three baskets filled with blue eggs». Or, «Because of the water of Z-3». Patients are systematically trained to use such sentences to create many types of illogical explanations. |
