Alyona N. Ivanova

The article presents an empirical study of sense of humor disorders in patients with schizophrenia and affective disorders. Several parameters of analysis are distinguished: humor recognition, humor preferences and the level of laughing activity. It is showed that patients with schizophrenia are characterized by inability to recognize humor. As soon as patients with schizotypal disorder do recognize humor, this may be used as a diagnostic criterion in clinical practice. Sense of humor in patients with schizophrenia and affective disorders acquires peculiarities which are defined here as preferences of certain cognitive mechanisms and topics of jokes.