Humor, Joining, and Reframing in Psychotherapy: Resolving the Auto-Double-Bind

Abstract

This article describes how the combination of reframing and joining creates an inherent auto-double-bind within the psychotherapeutic process. Reframing is one of the most frequently used tools in family therapy, and it cannot be used without joining. “Joining” is an essential way of creating therapeutic alliance, which has been acknowledged to be the most important common factor for the outcome of psychotherapy. The article demonstrates how the use of humor allows the therapist to resolve this particular double-bind, using both verbal and contradictory nonverbal communication to join and simultaneously reframe the clients’ views of the world.

Acknowledgments

The author wishes to thank Pr. A. Willy Szafran and Cristian & Stéphanie Batalla-Panichelli for their valuable comments; and particularly Mr. Tyler Marshall for “polishing” the English manuscript.

Notes

1. See Minuchin & Fishman (1981) for a complete description of specific joining behaviors.

2. “Split alliances” are defined as “notable differences in individual family member's emotional connections with the therapist, which may or may not stem from disagreements about the appropriate goals and tasks of treatment” (Friedlander et al., 2006, p. 162).

3. A “reflecting team” is “a small team located behind a one-way mirror” and is “asked by the therapist to switch places with the family midway through the interview” to discuss “among themselves their perceptions of the family's difficulties while family members listen” (Coulehan et al., 1998, p. 19).

4. It would be the same to say that the child victim of the double-bind, in Bateson's model, could simply show love and affection to his mother at some moments, and not do so at other moments. He cannot obey the first, then the second order, because he is ordered to obey both of them at the same time. Ferreira (1960) described the “split double-bind” in the context of delinquent behavior, where contradictory orders are given to the child by each of the parents. Again, in this model, the child cannot obey his father and stay home, and at the same time obey his mother and go outside to buy a magazine.

5. Names and other identifying characteristics have been modified to protect the confidentiality of the clients.