The Healing Laugh

We treat laughter as time off from the serious business of living. The science says we have it backwards.The Healing Laugh draws on neuroscience, evolutionary biology, and clinical psychology to reveal what actually happens when you laugh - the cascade in the brain, the rebound in the nervous system, the invisible line that pulls tight between two people who lose it at the same moment. Laughter isn't a luxury; it's one of the oldest tools we have for interrupting fear, loosening depression's grip, and rebuilding connection when words run out.This is no book of easy promises - laughter won't cure your illness, and no one here pretends it will. It's the honest, surprising story of a behavior everyone shares and almost no one understands. Rigorous enough for the skeptic, warm enough for anyone who has ever needed to laugh and couldn't.Rodgir Cohen, PhD, PsyD, is an interdisciplinary scholar and professor, a combat veteran, and the author of more than thirty books.