Comparative and Pathologically Study of Humor of children and teenagers with the Theory of Karen Hornay's Basic Anxiety

The current study aims at investigating the extent of the reflection of basic anxiety according to Karen Horney's theory of psychological criticism in children's and adolescent stories to discuss the pathology of the content of comic stories. According to Karen Horney, most of the aggressive, defensive and affection-seeking behaviors and isolation are rooted in childhood anxiety caused by family and society. The authors of the present study analyze the two collections of juvenile humor stories, “I am not Baba’s servant” by Ahmad Akbarpour and “Cream Love” by Shahram Shafie based on Karen Horney’s psychology and the theory of basic anxiety to identify which aforementioned story has caused anxiety and mental tension in children and adolescent readers.

This study, which has been conducted based on descriptive-analytical method and desk research.

There is a considerable extent of humiliation, fear, anxiety and isolation in the protagonist of the “I am not Baba’s servant” story, as far as David’s anxious and disjointed personality suffers from nightmare because of his father dictatorship and turns to reclusiveness as a defense mechanism of Karen Horneys’s theory. In contrast, the story of “Cream love” narrates the sense of solidarity and love between the members of family in a humorous language and in terms of anxiety mechanism, less feeling of humiliation and distress was observed.

This study, which has been conducted based on descriptive-analytical method and desk research, shows that Shafie has been more successful than Akbarpour in delineating the characters who have more mental health in comparison with the characters of the story of “I am not Baba’s servant”.