Paul McGhee’s just published (July, 2010) book:  Humor as Survival Training for a Stressed-Out World: The 7 Humor Habits Program.

[Available at www.Amazon.com or www.AuthorHouse.com. ]

I am sending this e-mail to fellow ISHS members.  This new book is of interest to anyone who is interested in a hands-on Humor Skills Training Program that has been successfully tested in Europe (Germany and Switzerland), Australia and the USA.  That is, it DOES boost humor skills and DOES improve one’s ability use humor to cope with stress.  Surprisingly, the program has also been shown to significantly reduce clinical levels of depression in three studies (discussed in the book).

Five faculty who I know of have used a previous version of this Training Program as part of a college course devoted to a discussion of humor research.  These have all been undergraduate courses.  This hands-on component of a humor course is very well received and compliments the discussion of research issues.  To check out the book, go to the publisher’s website, www.AuthorHouse.com.  Click on “bookstore,” and search under my name.  Click on the book title for more options and information about the book.

In short, the book focuses on 7 key habits or skills.  It first starts with immersing yourself in humor and mapping out the nature of your own sense of humor.  It then focuses on strengthening playfulness in general before focusing on specific humor skills.  Major attention is given to strengthening verbal humor skills, finding humor in everyday life and laughing at oneself and then learning to extend these skills to stressful situations.  Specific guidelines are offered for running a group session (which includes a college course) related to discussion of each step in the Program.  Specific suggestions are made of activities and exercises to strengthen each set of habits and skills.  A full discussion of the related research testing the program (including the references) is included in an Appendix.

A separate Appendix offers guidelines for using this book as an addition to a college course.  An e-mail address is provided for one faculty member who has included this Humor Skills Training Program as part of his undergraduate course on humor research for the past 5 or 6 years.  He is willing to correspond with you to provide a copy of his syllabus and offer suggestions of what does and does not work well.

**  You will also find at www.AuthorHouse.com an overview of my other new book—Humor: The Lighter Path to Resilience and Health—published a few months ago (in 2010) which discusses in detail the latest research on 1) Humor and health, 2) Humor and resilience/coping with stress, and 3) Humor and the brain.  I have already received notes from faculty saying that they are using this book as a text in a course this Fall.  It is probably too late for you to do that, but I thought you some of you might be interested in these books as an option for a future course.

Let me know if you have any questions about either book.  I know many of you do not know me, since I have been out of academia for the past 20 years doing other things.  But I can assure you that Humor: The Lighter Path . . . is a substantive book (including 50 pages of references) suitable for either an undergraduate or graduate course.  There has been a lot of exciting new research going on related to specific disease conditions over the past 8 years (almost all of it in Japan).  It is all discussed in this book.  This book is also available now at www.AuthorHouse.com or www.Amazon.com.

Thanks for your consideration.

Paul McGhee, PhD

Humor theory