Abstract
There has been a large body of literature and commentary on the use of humour in therapy. The goal of this paper was to systematically review the literature to find out whether one type of humour, banter, is reported as being used in psychotherapy. Aims included investigating the measures taken, banter’s relevance to psychotherapy and the extent to which the existing literature addressed the outcome of therapy. Additionally, a deductive content analysis was carried out to extract banter‐related examples reported in clinical practice. Results showed that few studies explicitly referred to banter, and no study investigated banter as the main independent variable in the context of therapy. Results also revealed that there was only one paper that related banter to the outcome of therapy. Several conceptual nuances of banter‐related humour were highlighted, and theory‐driven constructs regarding the use of banter in therapy were identified. Context and attunement to a client’s banter palate were highlighted as particularly important factors concerning the reception of banter in the therapeutic relationship. Finally, initial results indicate that one kind of psychodynamic‐oriented psychotherapy, the mentalisation‐based treatment, seems to be very well suited for the use of banter when challenging clients.