"The Unsuccessful Self-Treatment of a Case of 'Writer's Block'" is a humorous academic article by psychologist Dennis Upper about writer's block. It has no content except the title, journal formatting elements, and a humorous footnote.
Published in 1974 in a peer reviewed journal, Journal of Applied Behavior Analysis, it is recognized as the shortest academic article ever and a classic example of humor in science, or at the very least among behavioral psychologists. It has been cited more than 100 times.
The article received a humorous positive review which was published alongside the article.
The article has led to at least five similarly humorous and peer-reviewed, published replication studies, and several similar papers and scholarly articles.
More seriously, the paper is said to be a case reinforcing the image of a writer's block as a "blank page", and encouraging brevity in writing. It has been also used as an example that humor can indeed be found in academic publishing.
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