Alison M. Landoni - A Laughing Matter: Transforming Trauma Through Therapeutic Humor and Expressive Arts Therapy (Thesis Clinical Mental Health Counceling: Expressive Arts Therapy at Lesley University - School of Arts & Social Sciences)

''Humor and trauma (or comedy and tragedy) are both perspectival, which means they both depend upon a specific situation, but also on the perceiver of that specific situation. Humor and Trauma both share the quality of ‘taking someone by surprise’. They function the best when one’s internal logic is jolted and there’s a violation of their expectations.''

''Humor, especially, harbors what is known as the ‘incongruity theory’ which is that what violates our mental patterns and expectations. When someone doesn’t give us what we expect; that’s when our disappointment makes us laugh. Because of this ‘humorous situation’ a shift in perception takes places where the perceiver translates it’s recognition into a laugh or groan.''

''The research about the influence humor/laughter can have within (mental) healing processes hasn’t always been taken seriously; most of the researchers found it something ‘awkward’ to look into. In the early stages of research about humor; they only used photos of people smiling; which later could even be misconstrued as expressing pain.''

''The development of trauma (for example shell shock or PTSD) can result in a human’s personality turning into anxious and isolated. Humor and expressive art therapy add a layer of decentering, play, imagination and crystallization into a victim’s perspective, they create space between the victim and it’s problem.''