1964 Spontaneous laughter as an expression of emotional contact

Abstract

This paper refers to a group session in which the themes of homosexuality and its relationship with the limits and inhibitions of emotional life are discussed. The dreams presented by various members of the group highlight, at the same time, both the problem of homosexuality and its defensive nature against delicate, sensitive and feared emotional reactions, also present in dreams. One of the group members, who had brought extremely expressive dream material on both issues in focus – on the one hand the theme of homosexuality and, on the other, the internal survival of his rich and differentiated emotional life – becomes perplexed and tries to defend himself by affirming his genital capacity. This defense, however, made in a naive and somewhat quixotic way, is unmasked by the group through a general and contaminating laughter, which ends up dragging the very member who was defending himself along. Laughter, in this case, had multiple dynamic meanings and, on the one hand, it meant a relaxation of the anxiety caused by the themes under analysis, on the other hand it represented the group’s fidelity to the insights achieved and a form of productive fellowship. Through laughter, the group remained faithful to the theme in focus, facilitating its gradual integration without the need for compact defensive reactions.