Puisque mieux vaut toujours en rire

Quand les choses vont trop mal en Irak et que les familles de soldats qui se font canarder là-bas éprouvent quelque angoisse, on leur conseille ceci: riez, riez et tout ira mieux. C’est le travail de l’ancien colonel de l’U.S. Army James “Scotty” Scott. Le Pentagone a accepté d’intégrer dans ses programmes de soutien psychologique celui de Scott, qui est “laughter training specialist” à l’organisation World Laughter Tour, dans l’Ohio.

Voici des précisions, d’après un article du 13 janvier, de USA Today : « A Pentagon spokeswoman, Lt. Col. Ellen Krenke, says the Pentagon is committed to the program and values Scott's skills. “We sent him to the training,” she says.

» The laughter program was Scott's idea. It costs the military virtually nothing, because Scott already travels to states as a director of military family support policy. He has taught National Guard family group leaders in Alaska, Kansas, Oklahoma, Texas and Idaho, and will do so in Michigan, Pennsylvania and Florida, he says. Another laughter trainer is working with folks in North Carolina.

» “We believe our program prevents hardening of the attitudes,” says Scott, in one of his wordplay aphorisms that beg for a rimshot. The founder and chief executive of the World Laughter Tour is psychologist Steve Wilson, who calls himself "Cheerman of the Bored.’ “The guiding principle is to laugh for no reason. And that's one of the reasons it works so well for military families,” Scott says. “There's a lot they have to be stressed over, a lot of worries, a lot of concerns.” »

Mis en ligne le 14 janvier 2006 à 17H54