Humor As Defense Mechanism
According to George Eman Vaillant's (1977) categorization, humor is level IV defense mechanism: overt expression of ideas and feelings (especially those that are unpleasant to focus on or too terrible to talk about) that gives pleasure to others. Humor, which explores the absurdity inherent in any event, enables someone to "call a spade a spade", while "wit" is a form of displacement (level 3). Wit refers to the serious or distressing in a humorous way, rather than disarming it; the thoughts remain distressing, but they are "skirted round" by witticism.
Read more about this topic: Theories Of Humor
Famous quotes containing the words humor as, humor, defense and/or mechanism:
“Men’s happiness and misery depends altogether as much upon their own humor as it does upon fortune.”
—François, Duc De La Rochefoucauld (1613–1680)
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—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)
“For there is no defense for a man who, in the excess of his wealth, has kicked the great altar of Justice out of sight.”
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