The Ha-Ha Handbook Paperback by Bernhard Trenkle (Author)
Product Details
Paperback: 144 pages
Publisher: Zeig Tucker & Theisen Inc (September 5, 2012)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 1891944479
ISBN-13: 978-1891944475
Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 9 x 0.4 inches
Shipping Weight: 12.6 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
Customer Reviews
The Ha-Ha Handbook is primarily a joke book ? but it is more
By A Customer on April 24, 2002
Format: Paperback
The Ha-Ha Handbook is primarily a joke book – but it is also a lot more. The Meg-A-Phon, newsletter of the Milton Erickson Gesellschaft (MEG) of Germany has long included jokes with a jokes with a psychological bent in each issue. This is a collection of these jokes and each joke is titled with the particular psychological element it illustrates. Topics include amnesia, circular questioning, dissociation, double bind, dental hypnosis, seeding and triangulation.
How does one review a joke book? All I can say is that several of us in a gathering of both professionals and nonprofessionals each had a copy and competed for the opportunity to read various jokes to the group. If laughing aloud is a measure, this book is a rousing success. Some of the jokes are a twist on real psychotherapy; some are a twist on old jokes; and many were new to everyone in the room.
A few of the jokes suffer from difficulties in translation or culture, but most transcend those minor problems. In keeping with Trenkle’s humorous approach, each page is perforated. In that way, Trenkle explains, pages can be censored or even given directly to a particular person.
Trenkle is a well-known international speaker and therapist who customarily opens his talks with a carefully selected joke. This collection is representative, of many of his jokes and of the thoughtful way in which he matches his humor with his topic.
Reasonably priced, it is the perfect gift for a too-serious student of psychotherapy. The Ha-Ha Handbook is also a treat for anyone who just likes to laugh.
Betty Alice Erickson, M.S.