Six types of "humor" that can indicate mental problems

Human behavior can offer a multitude of signs and indicators of what is happening between our two ears, and this is so true that even starting from an individual's sense of humor it is possible to discover some psychological or neurological imbalances. Take a look at these six situations and their possible causes.

6 - Difficulty understanding sarcasm.

Processing a sarcastic comment is not as simple as it appears. First, the context, tone of voice and body language of the speaker must be analysed. For example, young children have more difficulty capturing sarcasm than adults.

Researchers at the University of California, San Francisco found that individuals with frontotemporal dementia (DFT) have difficulty understanding sarcasm. Other conditions such as autism, brain injury, schizophrenia, and even stroke may be behind a difficulty understanding this type of humor.

5 - Do not enjoy humor.

Psychologists have noted that workaholics gradually lose their ability to appreciate or create humor. These people's sense of humour tends to be activated by black or contemptuous humour which, in a totally subconscious way, can have the function of keeping those work-related subjects away from a conversation.

Workaholics marriages tend to culminate in divorce, and their children are more prone to depression in adulthood. In the later stages of work addiction, people lose their ability to fully enjoy any kind of humor. They become a mountain of wandering complaints.

4 - To laugh only at others and never at oneself.

Those with narcissistic personality disorder are able to appreciate only one very specific type of humor: one that has nothing to do with them. In other words, they are incapable of laughing at themselves, and they take it very seriously. The slightest observation that is not positive about these people usually ends with an exaggerated reaction.

A curious fact about this condition is that studies have confirmed that those haters who frequent the commentary section of Internet sites are generally narcissistic, but may also have signs of psychopathy and sadism.

3 - Lack of humor.

Humor is something subjective. For a joke or joke to be funny to you, it first has to be confronted with your personal values and beliefs. That means that if you experience a constant situation of lying about your values and beliefs, nothing else will seem funny to you. This can be seen in those who are disillusioned with life.

A study by Robert Lynch, anthropologist and stand-up comedian, evaluated reactions to the jokes in a group of college students. To find out if the reactions were sincere, a system of facial action codes was used.

Thus, Lynch confirmed his hypothesis that those most disillusioned with life had fewer real laughs. This does not mean that these people do not smile or laugh, but simply are not sincere.

2 - Mocking the pain of others.

This point, in fact, does not address a mental disorder but a strange reaction that most people have. How many times have you laughed at other people's misfortune? You ever feel like you're going to hell for that? Don't worry, it's normal.

In 1961, Yale University psychologist Stanley Milgram did an unconventional study: he led research participants to believe that they were providing increasingly strong electrical shocks to other people. Whenever they pressed a "button of pain", many volunteers ended up laughing out loud. They were laughs that seemed out of place, even strange,"said the psychologist.

By studying these laughter, Milgram realized that it was not joy but nervousness. Unconsciously, the participants laughed to try to convince themselves and those around them that the situation was much better than it appeared.

1 - Obsession for jokes.

Over the course of five years a patient, nicknamed "Derek" by the scientific community, showed such a huge obsession with jokes that he came to the point of waking up his wife at dawn to share his new creations. Uncomfortable by this strange change in her husband's behavior, the woman decided to go to the doctor. At the hospital they discovered that the patient had two spills that had damaged his frontal lobes.

The compulsion for jokes is called Witzelsucht. In the case of the patient, the damage in the areas of analytical processing caused the simplest jokes to stop him from being funny, and in the same way he could not understand more complex or subtle jokes either.