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Literature is sparse, still, on the subject of humour in preschool children. Most child therapists have met a child like Cy, who will be considered here—in whose treatment humour was significant as therapeutic tool, as sensitive indicator of the progress of treatment and as attainment in therapy: a new adaptive mode for both communication and defence.
But the reticence on this subject has its reasons. Humour in human life is like comfort and sunshine: so widely experienced as 'good' that it almost escapes notice. It is adaptable to so many purposes—simple or complicated, widely variable with the psychosexual phase, social situation and nationality of him who is amused—that it eludes scientific category. How can two listeners agree on the precise ingredients of any joke? And there has been a lag, after centuries of scholastic habit, in transferring the 'nature of humour' from the domain of philosophers and humanistic writers into the province of psychology as such. Then probably most discouraging: there is one notable quality about the subject. As soon as it is seriously investigated, it tends to vanish like a tertiary star when looked at directly.
A patient like Cy raises still unanswered questions about the early development of humour. These pages are an attempt to describe humour in the treatment of Cy: considered in the light of what has been and what remains to be theorized on this subject.
Cy was brought to our unit at age two years four months because of 'overwhelming jealousy' of his two siblings, a year older and a year younger than he. He fought and bit them. He 'moaned and whined'; lagged in the use of words for expression, though his development was proceeding well in other areas, He had temper tantrums. His mother could not toilet-train him. Difficulties around eating and sleeping, excessive fears and general discomfort had characterized Cy from the day of his birth. His dissatisfaction now dominated Cy's behaviour towards his mother—and sh