Laughter and Humor

Paper#3: Using Laughter and Humor to Heal

Erika Carter

Castleton State College

Abstract

This paper describes a specific example from the movie Patch Adams, where Patch heals someone with laughter and humor. Then I will talk about how it seemed to impact that individual. I will then talk about if I feel that laughter is the best medicine, followed by some examples from my own life where laughter and humor healed me in some way. I will also be addressing if laughter is the best way to heal someone.

Paper #3: Using Laughter and Humor to Heal

The purpose of this assignment was to address healing someone using laughter and humor. I will talk about an example that was from the movie Patch Adams, where he heals someone with laughter and humor. I will also talk about a time in my life where humor and laughter healed me. By the end of this paper, I will address my reasoning why I think that laughter and humor is the best way to heal someone.

From the movie Patch Adams, Hunter "Patch" Adams was pursuing a career in being a doctor. He was enrolled in college to become one. There was a particular scene in the movie where Patch uses humor to heal younger children. When Patch was in the hospital observing for his class, he noticed a group of young children in a room that had cancer. When Patch entered the room he noticed that they were very quiet and not smiling. He decided to go over to one of the younger girls and start acting like a clown and talking to the young girl in a funny voice. This behavior instantly made the young girl followed by all the other children, to smile and laugh at Patch.

According to (Yalom & Greaves, 1977), when someone exposes humor to someone who is dealing with an illness, it takes their mind off of it because they are focusing on the funny humor that the other person is imposing on them. That is exactly what Patch Adams did for those younger children who were dealing with cancer. They went from lying in their beds looking sad and not talking, to having so much happiness and life back in there face. They couldn't stop laughing at him.

After watching this movie, I truly believe that laughter is the best medicine. When you are laughing at something that was humorous, it relieves stress that you are feeling at the time. (Eastman, 1936.) When someone is going through a hard time or is ill, the last thing they want is to be alone. So, to have someone with them at the time is a great comfort for them. To make it even better is when that person is being positive and humorous while they are around that person (Yalom & Greaves, 1977).

There have been so many times where I have had laughter heal me through hard times. In general when I am going through a hard time I always want to be around my friends. If I am going through a hard time it only makes it worse for me to be alone. It makes me feel even worse with what I am going through. This reiterates the point that (Yalom, & Greaves, 1977) states, when someone is going through a really hard time, the last thing that they want to experience is being alone. As soon as I am going through a rough time, I immediately call my friends or my mom to see what they are doing, so that I can hang out with them. It is just a security blanket for me to be around my friends and family during hard times.

I know that the reason