On the Psychodynamics of Teasing1

A simplified schematic picture of the teasing act is represented in the chart. The solid black arrow signifies the predominant tendency of the teaser toward an activity which is painful, hostile, serious, and antagonistic. This induces an element of reluctant participation in the teasee, whose primary tendency, represented by the open arrow, is the opposite—friendly, playful, pleasurable, and co-operative. To induce and secure this volitional interplay, the teaser, consciously and partially inhibits his aggression, though not usually up to the given impression. The teasee would not be drawn into or remain in the interactivity without the inducement of a pleasure premium. The ratio of the primary tendencies of each in any specific interplay is indicated by a point on the slanting line. This is crudely designated by the order of the synonyms used at corresponding positions. Thus, the greater the influence of the teaser is to that of the teasee, the greater the hostile over the friendly component contained in the teasing (see chart).

When the teaser's sadistic impulses are insufficiently curbed, the interplay tends to lose its teasing quality. As this interactivity passes beyond the anger, temper, or cry points, it becomes solely a fighting, bullying or tormenting engagement. This reflects a change in status from being teased to being tormented, from an active, volitional participant to an unwilling recipient. The loss of teasing quality can result similarly from the removal of the teaser's thwarting aim to the elicited impulses of the teasee. What follows then is a relatively unambivalent, harmless, competitive game, a friendly rivalry or a pleasurable, co-operative interplay. The absense of either participant's inhibiting tendency nebulizes the essential ambitendent character of teasing. These elements demarcate the boundaries of teasing and are indicated on the chart by a zone to represent its variability.