ABSTRACT
Emotions are inherently twofold. The subjective experience of feeling pertains to the individual, rather than the individual's interaction with others. Dominant emotions may be predictable, or less predictable. A tacit emotion either never appears in the life of a person, or it can normally be present, but absent in that peculiar moment. The rhetorical conception of emotions is instrumental: emotions must be "moved" and, in order to move them, the rhetor must control them, first of all within herself. Humour, as such, has a general relevance for emotional interaction. Humour in therapy thus becomes a way of fostering reflection. That may make more secure, less threatening, the emerging emotions, through that very doubling. Sometimes it is useful for the most violent emotions to be experienced in all their strength in the therapeutic encounter, at other times they must be somewhat softened.
