Chapter I: Preface

The present work is, I believe, the first attempt to treat on a considerable scale the whole subject of Laughter, under its various aspects, and in its connections with our serious activities and interests. As such, it will, I feel sure, lay itself open to the criticism that it lacks completeness, or at least, proportion. A further criticism to which, I feel equally sure, it will expose itself, is that it clearly reflects the peculiarities of the experience of the writer. The anticipation of this objection does not, however, disturb me. It seems to me to be not only inevitable, but desirable—at least at the present stage of our knowledge of the subject—that one who attempts to understand an impulse, of which the intensities and the forms appear to vary greatly among men, of which the workings are often subtle, and of which the significance is by no means obvious, should, while making full use of others’ impressions, draw largely on his own experience.

Portions of the volume have already appeared in Reviews. Chapter I. was published (under the title “Prolegomena to a Theory of Laughter”) in _The Philosophical Review_, 1900; Chapter V., in the _Revue Philosophique_, 1902; and Chapter VIII., in _The International Monthly_, 1901. The parts of Chapters III. and VI. which treat of the psychology of tickling appeared in the _Compte rendu_ of the Fourth International Congress of Psychology (_IV_^{me} _Congrès International de Psychologie_), Paris, 1901. Some of the ideas in Chapter X. are outlined in an article on “The Uses of Humour,” which appeared in _The National Review_, 1897.

Some of my obligations to other writers and workers have been acknowledged in the volume. For friendly assistance in reading the proofs of the work I am greatly indebted to Mr. Carveth Read, Dr. Alexander Hill, Prof. W. P. Ker, Mr. Ling Roth, Dr. W. H. R. Rivers, Miss C. Osborn, and Miss Alice Woods.

HÔTEL DU WEISSHORN, VAL D’ANNIVIERS, _August_, 1902.

CONTENTS.

CHAPTER I. INTRODUCTORY.

Objections to serious study of laughter • 1

Previous treatment of subject by philosophers • 4

Their way of dealing with facts • 6

Examination of an illustration given by Dr. Lipps • 9

Common defects of theories • 17

Difficulties of attempt to treat subject scientifically • 19

Scope of inquiry • 20

CHAPTER II. THE SMILE AND THE LAUGH.

Need of studying the bodily process in laughter • 25

Characteristics of the movements of the smile • 26

Expressive function of the smile • 27

Continuity of processes of smiling and laughing • 27

Characteristics of the movements of laughter • 30

Concomitant organic changes during laughter • 33

Physiological benefits of laughing • 34

Effects of excessive laughter • 37

The laugh as expression • 39

Relation of expression to feeling in laughter • 40

Interactions of joyous feeling and organic concomitants • 44

Deviations from the normal type of laugh • 48