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Using Stories, Anecdotes, and Humor in Positive Psychotherapy

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Positive Psychiatry, Psychotherapy and Psychology

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Abstract

This chapter discusses the use of stories, anecdotes, and humor in positive psychotherapy (PPT, after Peseschkian). Stories are designated as traditional phenomena of human culture, and have a variety of forms and genres of folklore and copyright texts. There are heroic epics, magic legends and myths, fairy tales of various kinds, but also everyday fables, tales, parables, and anecdotes. At present, films and TV series are important ways of processing meaning. All these phenomena belong to the metaphorical understanding of the world and can be used in psychotherapeutic practice.

The experience of Ukrainian positive psychotherapists with stories and humor is summarized. Traditional and new ways of working with stories and humor are shown. The work algorithms are proposed and case studies with parables and other kinds of stories are considered: fairy tales, film histories, and anecdotes. Additional functions of the stories of jokes—the recognition function and the function of a social therapist—are highlighted.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Odessa National I. I. Mechnikov University, South Ukrainian Institute of Psychology, Psychotherapy and Management, Odessa, Ukraine

    Olga Lytvynenko

  2. Odessа National I. I. Mechnikov University, South Ukrainian Institute of Psychology, Psychotherapy and Management, Odessа, Ukraine

    Liudmyla Zlatova

  3. Ukrainian Institute of Positive Psychotherapy, Cherkasy, Ukraine

    Volodymyr Karikash

  4. Private Practice, Kremenchuk, Poltava Region, Ukraine

    Tetiana Zhumatii

Authors
  1. Olga Lytvynenko
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  2. Liudmyla Zlatova
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  3. Volodymyr Karikash
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  4. Tetiana Zhumatii
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Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Professor of Psychiatry, College of Medicine University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences, Little Rock, AR, USA

    Erick Messias

  2. Wiesbaden Academy of Psychotherapy, World Association for Positive and Transcultural Psychotherapy, Wiesbaden, Germany

    Hamid Peseschkian

  3. Department of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, Philadelphia, PA, USA

    Consuelo Cagande

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Lytvynenko, O., Zlatova, L., Karikash, V., Zhumatii, T. (2020). Using Stories, Anecdotes, and Humor in Positive Psychotherapy. In: Messias, E., Peseschkian, H., Cagande, C. (eds) Positive Psychiatry, Psychotherapy and Psychology. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-33264-8_28

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-33264-8_28

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  • Publisher Name: Springer, Cham

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-030-33263-1

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-030-33264-8

  • eBook Packages: MedicineMedicine (R0)

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