Sunday Funday

Since I went out on Saturday with James and his friends on a late night adventure in search of the Electronic Music Festival, I decided upon my 5:00 AM arrival back at the house in Brooklyn that I would be sleeping through the first 10 AM workshop I was signed up for on Sunday, EMDR, AT & Trauma. It sounded awesome because it seemed like I could learn some really cutting-edge relaxation techniques from the class, I know I don't do well with less than 7 hours of sleep, so it really was the right decision for me so I could enjoy the rest of the day.

I woke up around 11:30, pulled myself together with James's help, and rushed over to 48th Street and Broadway just in time to sign in and sit in on the lunch talk, "Humor & The Group Process", led by Izzy Gesell. Not only was Gesell entertaining and the content informative, but I was pretty inspired by the talk to learn more about humor in general and how it will relate to my work.

I was pretty fascinated by his breakdown of the functions of humor. He argued that humor can be used as a shield; this is when someone would use it to protect, overcome awkwardness, set an audience at ease to maintain control, reassure the insecure, laugh at themselves, or laugh at things we do as humans. I appreciated his distinction between "self-deprecating" and "self-effacing" humor; he encouraged people to aim towards self-effacing humor, in which we laugh at things we do but we are not belittling ourselves. Gesell argued humor's next function is as a weapon, or as "the destroyer". He placed most instances of sarcasm under this label. In this manner, humor creates in and out groups between the people the humor is directed at; it's kind of divisive between who gets it and who doesn't. In this manner, humor can also be destructive, such as saying to someone who doesn't resonate with the joke as well as you, "you can't take a joke", which might be taken as "you're not funny or smart enough to get this". I totally resonated with this, as someone has spent quite a bit of time around highly sarcastic friends. Humor's third function is as a bridge or connector. In this usage of humor, the feeling of an enjoyable interaction is shared, and there is a shared perspective on an idea about truth. Humor's last function is as a spotlight; it can help us control the uncontrollable, distract from fear to put the spotlight on something else, or highlight a self or issue.

After Gesell elaborated about the four functions of humor, he explained how every joke has crucial elements; a story, structure, characters, a problem/conflict, and a resolution (punch line). He showed (with a couple joke examples) about how a story and structure and characters can change, but the punch line must always remain the same. Often a joke can be "reconstructed" using only the punch line. He argued that jokes are a play on the universal human condition. Gesell argued that humor strengthens our ability to see a different point of view, helps us understand conflict and resolution, exercises our bodies and maintains our wellness, helps us connect with people to trust them deeper, and lifts our spirits and rise above taking everything too seriously.

I also learned about some interesting concepts, like the power of "group efficacy", which is the collective belief of group members that the group can and will be effective. If a group is high in group efficacy, they will benefit deeper from the work the group does because they believe in it.

I really got a lot from the talk, so I went up to join the little crowd of people who wanted to connect with Gesell afterwards. While I was waiting to meet with him, I met another person from Cambridge, Jason, who happened to live with one of my colleagues in the expressive therapies program, Carmen. He was pretty awesome, and told me about the work he does with "Laughing Matters", a humor-based healing program that does a lot of work in hospitals. He's also connected to True Story Theater, the Arlington-based program internship that offered me an internship. Small world!

When I finally got a chance to speak to Gesell, I thanked him for the talk and introduced myself and began to speak about what interested me about the talk. He got really excited when I mentioned I went to Lesley, and said he really wanted to get over to Lesley to give a talk or workshop sometime soon. He handed me his card and emphasized his desire to have me contact him about that. Exciting! I'd love to speak to the faculty and see if we can bring him out.

I'll post later about the rest of my Sunday. Just a sneak peek: it includes Guided Imagery through Music, a tarot reading, and drinking pitchers and doing pool at Greenpoint. Badass.