ABSTRACT
In a best-selling book, Dyer stated that “perhaps the single most outstanding characteristic of healthy people is their unhostile sense of humor” (1976, p. 214). An investigation by O’Connell (1960) indicated that the well-adjusted person has a greater appreciation for humor than the less-adjusted person. From a clinical perspective, some practitioners, e.g., Shelton and Ackerman (1974), advocate the therapeutic use of evocation of humor as a state incompatible with anxiety and Ellis (1976) emphasized humor as a means of challenging irrational beliefs. Recently in Wales, the world’s first International Symposium on Humor was held. Adler made frequent use of humor (Ansbacher &Ansbacher, 1956) and those endorsing Adlerian ideas (e.g., O’Connell, 1975; Olson, 1976) employ humor in psychotherapy.
