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Problematic: The subject for my research paper, under the topic of ‘what psychotherapy has to say about society and social power’, is “The use of comedy as a means to ameliorate racial prejudice; Psychotherapy for the masses.”
Introduction: There is something abhorrent about an egalitarian society that ‘randomly pre-selects’ individuals for a ‘special screening’ at airports, especially when the ‘special screening’ seems no different, in its effectiveness, from the screening procedures employed for general passengers. Not only does the individual being segregated feel humiliated and confused, but the people around him feel threatened as well. Their eyes refuse to meet the eyes of the isolated individual and conversations abruptly stop, refusing to start again. It seems to re-enforce the opinions generated by commentators whose racial vilification and incendiary comments blare across popular culture and publicly accessed media. In today’s world of instant communication, rhetorical sabre rattling intended to create a ‘Straussian’ internal environment within one country, spreads its jingoistic message across the planet, providing fodder for an unending cycle of worthless and incompetent dialogue. What is the effect of this type of an environment on an individual of colour? Imagine the following circumstance of a person, of indistinct colour, in a large metropolitan city. Imagine a person who is considered to be a ‘Latino’, when sitting outside a Latin American cafe, by its Columbian owner, a Muslim from Pakistan, when he grows a beard by a Sikh taxi driver (being bearded himself) and is neither. In other words he blends into a cosmopolitan mix and has image of him based on geography rather than race. He suddenly finds himself being segregated. Imagine the effect on a proud hard working immigrant, who pays his taxes, when the society he so adores for accepting him and providing him with a means to earn a living, creates an atmosphere of disenfranchisement and segregation. How prevalent is this type of experience and what are the triggers that set this type of experience into motion? What is the effect of this experience? How does this ‘newer’ racial profiling compare with racial profiling of African – Americans in the US?
The psychotherapeutic community has known about the benefits of using humour in the therapeutic setting. There have been studies done of the benefits of using humour as therapy for the individual. However, there is less discussion about the ongoing therapeutic role, performed by comics, for the masses.
The purpose of the paper is to identify the role of comedy as a form of preventative psychotherapy for the masses. The ‘affect’ generation is not the main consideration here, though it is important, but it is the ameliorating effect; the cognitive remodelling of the individual’s perception, that is. The paper will present a theoretical model of this remodelling along with statistical data gathered from a web survey created for the purpose of this paper.
The paper will concentrate on the work of two categories of comics. The first are stand up comics; Dave Chappelle, Russell Peters and Ahmed Ahmed. The second category comprises of satirical TV ‘news’ programs ‘The Daily Show with Jon Stewart’, ‘The Colbert Report’ (based in the US) and ‘The Chaser’s War on Everything’ and ‘Newstopia’ (based in Australia). These programs have similar methods of delivering information, which will be identified and elaborated. It will be described how these methods complement the work done by the first category.
Introduction: There is something abhorrent about an egalitarian society that ‘randomly pre-selects’ individuals for a ‘special screening’ at airports, especially when the ‘special screening’ seems no different, in its effectiveness, from the screening procedures employed for general passengers. Not only does the individual being segregated feel humiliated and confused, but the people around him feel threatened as well. Their eyes refuse to meet the eyes of the isolated individual and conversations abruptly stop, refusing to start again. It seems to re-enforce the opinions generated by commentators whose racial vilification and incendiary comments blare across popular culture and publicly accessed media. In today’s world of instant communication, rhetorical sabre rattling intended to create a ‘Straussian’ internal environment within one country, spreads its jingoistic message across the planet, providing fodder for an unending cycle of worthless and incompetent dialogue. What is the effect of this type of an environment on an individual of colour? Imagine the following circumstance of a person, of indistinct colour, in a large metropolitan city. Imagine a person who is considered to be a ‘Latino’, when sitting outside a Latin American cafe, by its Columbian owner, a Muslim from Pakistan, when he grows a beard by a Sikh taxi driver (being bearded himself) and is neither. In other words he blends into a cosmopolitan mix and has image of him based on geography rather than race. He suddenly finds himself being segregated. Imagine the effect on a proud hard working immigrant, who pays his taxes, when the society he so adores for accepting him and providing him with a means to earn a living, creates an atmosphere of disenfranchisement and segregation. How prevalent is this type of experience and what are the triggers that set this type of experience into motion? What is the effect of this experience? How does this ‘newer’ racial profiling compare with racial profiling of African – Americans in the US?
The psychotherapeutic community has known about the benefits of using humour in the therapeutic setting. There have been studies done of the benefits of using humour as therapy for the individual. However, there is less discussion about the ongoing therapeutic role, performed by comics, for the masses.
The purpose of the paper is to identify the role of comedy as a form of preventative psychotherapy for the masses. The ‘affect’ generation is not the main consideration here, though it is important, but it is the ameliorating effect; the cognitive remodelling of the individual’s perception, that is. The paper will present a theoretical model of this remodelling along with statistical data gathered from a web survey created for the purpose of this paper.
The paper will concentrate on the work of two categories of comics. The first are stand up comics; Dave Chappelle, Russell Peters and Ahmed Ahmed. The second category comprises of satirical TV ‘news’ programs ‘The Daily Show with Jon Stewart’, ‘The Colbert Report’ (based in the US) and ‘The Chaser’s War on Everything’ and ‘Newstopia’ (based in Australia). These programs have similar methods of delivering information, which will be identified and elaborated. It will be described how these methods complement the work done by the first category.
The outline of the paper is as follows...
1. The need for providing psychotherapy to the masses has been elaborated in various articles. This paper shall briefly summarise and reference these points and introduce the paper in 500 words.
a. The individual as a member of society
b. The individual’s intra-psychical structure; how this pre-disposes to prejudice
c. Racism as an institution
d. Society’s influence on the individual
2. The semiotic nature of information and the creation of cultural institutions that breed and propagate differentiation of the masses. The paper shall cover the following points in 500 words.
a. Gesaltic perception and condensation of information
b. Blurring of news and opinion; the agenda unfolds
c. News satire in popular culture
d. Why the fight of ‘opinions’ and ‘name calling’ doesn’t work
3. The comic performance: similarities between stand up and psychotherapy. The paper shall cover the following topics in 1500 words.
a. Types of stand up comedy (briefly)
b. The nature of ‘improv’ and its methods
i. How psychologically minded in the Comic?
ii. What is his/her interaction with the audience?
iii. Which topics can be covered by a comic?
The author will supplement information obtained from second party interviews of the above comics with direct interviews (via email/telephone) where possible.
c. The individual; a member of the audience (supplemented with web survey data)
d. The comic material; content is king
i. The comic as a racial icon (supplemented with web survey data)
ii. Advantages of Self defeating humour
4. How stand up comedy fulfils it role as a specific intervention. The following points will be covered in 1300 words (supplemented with web survey data).
a. It is not just about ‘Affect’ creation
b. Exposing prejudice in a non-threatening way
c. Cognitive remodelling
d. Re-enforcing the reality principle
e. Creating common ground: priority to ‘sameness’ vs ‘difference’ without eliminating ‘difference’
5. Where comedy doesn’t work and conclusion. To be covered in 400 words (supplemented with web survey data).
a. The limitations of this approach
b. Moving forward with the insights from this paper
6. Annotated Bibliography and Appendix
Survey Link
1. The need for providing psychotherapy to the masses has been elaborated in various articles. This paper shall briefly summarise and reference these points and introduce the paper in 500 words.
a. The individual as a member of society
b. The individual’s intra-psychical structure; how this pre-disposes to prejudice
c. Racism as an institution
d. Society’s influence on the individual
2. The semiotic nature of information and the creation of cultural institutions that breed and propagate differentiation of the masses. The paper shall cover the following points in 500 words.
a. Gesaltic perception and condensation of information
b. Blurring of news and opinion; the agenda unfolds
c. News satire in popular culture
d. Why the fight of ‘opinions’ and ‘name calling’ doesn’t work
3. The comic performance: similarities between stand up and psychotherapy. The paper shall cover the following topics in 1500 words.
a. Types of stand up comedy (briefly)
b. The nature of ‘improv’ and its methods
i. How psychologically minded in the Comic?
ii. What is his/her interaction with the audience?
iii. Which topics can be covered by a comic?
The author will supplement information obtained from second party interviews of the above comics with direct interviews (via email/telephone) where possible.
c. The individual; a member of the audience (supplemented with web survey data)
d. The comic material; content is king
i. The comic as a racial icon (supplemented with web survey data)
ii. Advantages of Self defeating humour
4. How stand up comedy fulfils it role as a specific intervention. The following points will be covered in 1300 words (supplemented with web survey data).
a. It is not just about ‘Affect’ creation
b. Exposing prejudice in a non-threatening way
c. Cognitive remodelling
d. Re-enforcing the reality principle
e. Creating common ground: priority to ‘sameness’ vs ‘difference’ without eliminating ‘difference’
5. Where comedy doesn’t work and conclusion. To be covered in 400 words (supplemented with web survey data).
a. The limitations of this approach
b. Moving forward with the insights from this paper
6. Annotated Bibliography and Appendix
Survey Link
