The capacity to tell a joke: Reflections from work with Asperger children

Abstract

The capacity to tell a joke is a highly complex interpersonal event that depends upon the maturation of certain developmental achievements which are absent or stunted in children with Asperger's Syndrome. These include the ability to know another's mind, a sense of interpersonal timing and, most notably, a capacity for abstract thinking. The author discusses Freud's (1905) notion of joke‐work, which is akin to dream‐work, both of which are pathways to forming mental representations. Freud considered joke‐work as a mental activity that operated on the verbal level and the author examines the preverbal dimensions that are rooted in the earliest mother/infant interactions. An extended case discussion of the psychoanalytic treatment of an Asperger boy is offered to illustrate these points and to demonstrate the activity of joke‐work as a means of building mental representations.

La faculté de raconter une histoire drôle: réflexions tirées du travail avec les enfants asperger

La faculté de raconter une histoire drôle, une manifestation interpersonnelle extrêmement complexe, dépend de la maturation de certaines capacités acquises au cours du développement, qui sont absentes ou diminuées chez les enfants présentant un syndrome d'Asperger. Parmi ces capacités figurent l'aptitude à connaître l'esprit de l'autre, le sens du timing interpersonnel et, surtout, la capacité de pensée abstraite. L'auteur de cet article discute de la notion de Freud (1905) relative au travail de l'esprit, qui s'apparente au travail de rêve, ces deux activités ouvrant la voie à la formation de représentations mentales. Alors que Freud considérait le travail de l'esprit comme une activité mentale opérant au niveau verbal, l'auteur examine ici les dimensions préverbales qui prennent racine dans les interactions mère/nourrisson les plus précoces. Pour illustrer son propos et montrer comment l'activité du travail de l'esprit contribue à construire les représentations mentales, il présente la cure au long cours d'un garçon Asperger.

Die fähigkeit, einen witz zu erzählen: reflexionen aus der arbeit mit asperger‐kindern

Einen Witz zu erzählen ist ein hochkomplexer interpersonaler Vorgang, der auf der Reifung bestimmter Entwicklungserrungenschaften beruht, die bei Kindern mit dem Asperger‐Syndrom entweder fehlen oder verkümmert sind. Dazu gehören die Fähigkeit, fremde Psychen zu lesen, ein Gefühl für interpersonales Timing und vor allem die Fähigkeit, abstrakt zu denken. Der Autor erläutert Freuds Überlegungen zur Witz‐Arbeit, die der Traumarbeit ähnelt und ebenso wie diese eine Möglichkeit zur Bildung psychischer Repräsentationen darstellt. Freud betrachtete die Arbeit des Witzes als eine psychische Aktivität, die sich auf der sprachlichen Ebene vollzieht. Der Autor untersucht die präverbalen Dimensionen, die in den sehr frühen Mutter‐Säugling‐Interaktionen gründen. Eine ausführliche Falldiskussion der psychoanalytischen Behandlung eines kleinen Jungen mit dem Asperger‐Syndrom illustriert diese Punkte und demonstriert die Aktivität der Witz‐Arbeit als Möglichkeit, mentale Repräsentationen zu entwickeln.

La capacità di comprendere e usare l'umorismo: riflessioni sul lavoro con i bambini con la sindrome di asperger

La capacità di comprendere e usare l'umorismo è un evento interpersonale complesso che dipende da fasi maturative e dall'aver raggiunto certi livelli evolutivi che sono assenti o poco sviluppati nei bambini con la Sindrome di Asperger. Queste pietre miliari evolutive includono la capacità di conoscere la mente di un altro, un senso del tempo interpersonale e, in particolare, la capacità di pensiero astratto. L'autore esamina il concetto freudiano (1905)di lavoro dell'umorismo, che è simile al lavoro onirico, essendo entrambi dei percorsi verso la formazione delle rappresentazioni mentali. Freud considera il lavoro dell'umorismo un'attività mentale effettuata sul piano verbale e l'autore esamina le dimensioni preverbali che affondano le radici nelle relazioni precoci tra madre e bambino. Si propone la discussione estesa del trattamento psicoanalitico di un bambino con la Sindrome di Asperger per illustrare questi temi e per dimostrare come il lavoro dell'umorismo possa costituire una piattaforma su cui fondare le rappresentazioni mentali.

La capacidad de contar chistes: reflexiones a partir del trabajo con niños con síndrome de asperger

La capacidad de contar chistes es un acto interpersonal altamente complejo que depende de la consecución de ciertos logros del desarrollo que están ausentes o muy disminuidos en niños con síndrome de Asperger. Entre estos está la capacidad de conocer la mente del otro, un sentido del momento interpersonal propicio y, sobre todo, la capacidad de pensamiento abstracto. El autor discute la noción de trabajo del chiste de Freud (1905), que es parecida al trabajo del sueño, y ambas vías para la formación de representaciones mentales. Freud consideraba el trabajo del chiste como una actividad mental que operaba a nivel verbal, y el autor examina las dimensiones preverbales que se originan en las más tempranas interacciones madre/bebé. Para ilustrar estos puntos y mostrar la actividad del trabajo del chiste como un medio de construcción de representaciones mentales, se presenta una amplia discusión del tratamiento psicoanalítico de un niño con Asperger.

Key words:

• joke‐work
• dream‐work
• Asperger
• mental representations
• child analytic technique
• humor in analysis

Notes

1. The word symbol derives from the Greek word symbolon that suggests throwing things together for contrast and comparison.

2. Trevarthen (2005) observes that parental failure to respond to the infant's attempts to evoke pleasure induces shame in the baby.

3. In effect this ‘joke’ was employing a mechanism found in more sophisticated humor which offers “a judgment which produces a comic contrast” (Freud, 1905, p. 10), that, in essence, says, “Isn't it ridiculous to think of A, B and C connected with buttons?”

4. Freud, of course, did not use the words ‘punch line’ since it is an English language term that came into usage in the 1920s or 1930s, many years after his Jokes book.

5. See Kris (1938) and Jacobson (1946) regarding the dangers of overstimulation.

6. Lyrics from Chad and Jeremy, A Summer Song (1964).

7. Together with Anzieu's (1993) notion of the skin ego, Bick's (1986) discussions of the importance of skin in early object relations and Frances Tustin's (1994) work on the rhythm of safety, the joke envelope is a central element in this constellation of archaic organizers of the psyche‐soma.

8. Perhaps this is one of the sources of humor underlying jokes of flatulence? These reach down into the early unrepresented bodily experiences characterized by sound, the build‐up of abdominal pressure and subsequent discharge.

9. Rhode (2011) states that many Asperger children have a sense, albeit not always well developed, of others having an inside in clear distinction from autistic children who lack this capacity.

10. An adult woman I (Brown, 1996) previously reported on, felt that she had neither an inside nor an outside and that she was like “a face on a pane of glass” (p. 44). Separations from me reminded her of burn patients with skin grafts: if the bandages were taken off too soon, the new skin would peel off with the gauze.

11. See Levine and Brown's (2013) recent compendium of papers on this subject.

12. Paper given at the Boston Psychoanalytic Institute, December, 2013.