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The relationship of King Lear and his Fool might be viewed as an analytic therapy in which humor is an essential vehicle; the Fool confronts the King with the reality that he would deny; he interprets his castration anxiety and its derivatives; he attempts to support and protect his reality testing. In two crucial encounters distinct progress is made, but in the third the King's well-meaning friend intervenes and the battle for Lear's sanity is lost.
Given the therapist's talent for it, exercised with judgment, and operating from a stable therapeutic alliance to support an observant ego and highlight resistances, humor may act beneficially in treatment in several ways. It may be used to mobilize benign aspects of the superego, attack archaic elements of the superego, and support the ego. It may help lift repressions by making use of the mechanism of negation, and by fostering a favorable ambiance between the observing part of the patient's ego and the analyst; this may be internalized in the form of a freer interaction between the patient's unconscious and preconscious. Finally, humor may be useful in transmitting reality across ego boundaries in the right blend of distance and closeness.