Meow, Meow, Meow, Face is Funny Now? Discussion of Nakanishi’s “Using Humor in the Treatment of an Adolescent Girl With Mutism: A Case From Japan”

Abstract

This discussion responds to Nakanishi’s question about how humor contributes to therapeutic action in his treatment of an adolescent girl who had not spoken or revealed her face for 3 years. His use of humor is explored in concert with his exquisite attunement to nonverbal process. I highlight his pivotal statement, “My face is funny, isn’t it,” and elaborate its multiple meanings that influence the treatment, enabling the patient to emerge from her state of mutism, and out from behind her mask. In a context that had been dominated by shame, humor facilitates a transforming bond, evidenced by the patient’s newfound abilities to laugh aloud, make eye contact, and match her therapist’s humor with her own. Further, the influence of the cultural context of this treatment—that is set in Japan using the Japanese language—is discussed.

Keywords:

• adolescence
• humor
• Japanese
• mutism
• nonverbal
• self- and interactiveregulation
• self psychology
• shame
• social anxiety

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Amy Joelson

Amy Joelson, LCSW, is the Faculty and Director of Distance Learning at the Institute for the Psychoanalytic Study of Subjectivity in New York City; an Associate Faculty at the Japanese Forum of Psychoanalytic Self Psychology in Hiroshima, Japan; an Associate Editor of Psychoanalysis, Self and Context; a Council Member of the International Association for Psychoanalytic Self Psychology; and is in private practice in New York City treating adults, children, and adolescents.