Stripping the Boss : The Powerful Role of Humor in the Egyptian Revolution 2011

The Egyptian Revolution 2011 has shaken the Arab world and stirred up Middle-East politics. Moreover, it caused a rush in political science and the neighboring disciplines, which had not predicted an event like this and now have troubles explaining it. While many things can be learned from the popular uprising, and from the limitations of previous scholarship, our focus will be on a moral resource, which has occasionally been noticed, but not sufficiently explored: the role of humor in keeping up the spirit of the Revolution. For eighteen days, protestors persevered at Liberation Square in Central Cairo, the epicenter of resistance; at times a few dozens, at times hundreds of thousands. What they did was to fight the terror of the regime, which reached absurd peaks during those days, with humor – successfully. We offer a social-functionalist account of the uprising, which includes behavioral as well as cultural levels of analysis, and illuminates how humorous means helped to achieve deadly serious goals. By reconstructing how Egyptians laughed themselves into democracy, we outline a social psychology of resistance, which uses humor both as a sword and a shield.Peer reviewe

Nature and Functions of Humor in Trench Newspapers (1914–1918)

During the First World War, trench newspapers (or “trench journals”, “trench magazines”, “soldiers’ newspapers” etc.) were published inside most belligerent armies. Although different kinds of trench journalism can be distinguished, the archetypal characteristic of the genre lies in the fact that both the journals’ editorial boards and their readerships were made up of soldiers on duty in or near the trenches. Therefore, it is not surprising that military authorities developed mechanisms of surveillance, censorship or mediation with regard to trench journalism. Scholarly attention to trench newspapers has focused mostly on specific contents or ideological aspects. This proposal aims at identifying similarities and discrepancies with regard to the function of humour as one of the most common characteristics of trench journalism across nations (Belgium, France, Germany, Great-Britain and its dominions, Italy). Emotional and social aspects are known to be of central importance to the occurrence of humour. Given their nature, it is obvious to interpret the newspapers’ humour as an escape valve for the stress and fear that were inherent to trench warfare. Moreover, strengthening the bonds among their readership was an explicit goal of many trench newspapers. These functions manifest themselves through the omnipresence of humour as well as through its idiosyncratic nature. Soldiers’ slang and “trench vocabulary”, for instance, are frequently triggering humour and the pompous rhetoric of the national press, against which the trench newspapers wanted to react, is often parodied. Even though implicitness and ambiguity were among its most constitutive aspects, humour in trench journals – for reasons that are easy to understand – was not used to subvert the main ideological underpinnings of the nation, nor to criticise the military hierarchy or the conduct of the war. An important factor explaining the conformist, patriotic and even bellicose nature of most trench newspapers’ humour is the socio-professional background of their authors, a significant proportion of whom had been what nowadays we would call professional communicators: journalists, teachers, artists or even priests. For these men, launching a trench journal was a means to claim a significant role in the life of the nation and, thus, to defend themselves against symbolic annihilation by the dehumanising war. In this perspective, it is not surprising that their humour showed a strong allegiance to the nation’s culture and institutions, in which they were steeped, nor that literacy played a central role in it, for example through parody, word-play, the use of dialects etc. Finally, the use of a complex format such as the journal permitted the editors to divide the content into sections in which different types of humour (including visual humour) each created their own in- and out-groups: well-educated versus near-illiterate men, soldiers from different geographical origins, etc. Rather than humour itself, it is this polyphony, together with the dominant patriotic use of humour, that seems to have allowed dissonant yet maybe more genuine concerns of the soldiers to find expression, at least as long as this freedom of speech was not limited by censors, or falsified by propagandists.status: publishe

Preserving Subjective Wellbeing in the Face of Psychopathology: Buffering Effects of Personal Strengths and Resources.

BACKGROUND:Many studies on resilience have shown that people can succeed in preserving mental health after a traumatic event. Less is known about whether and how people can preserve subjective wellbeing in the presence of psychopathology. We examined to what extent psychopathology can co-exist with acceptable levels of subjective wellbeing and which personal strengths and resources moderate the association between psychopathology and wellbeing. METHODS:Questionnaire data on wellbeing (Manchester Short Assessment of Quality of Life/Happiness Index), psychological symptoms (Depression Anxiety Stress Scales), and personal strengths and resources (humor, Humor Style questionnaire; empathy, Empathy Quotient questionnaire; social company; religion; daytime activities, Living situation questionnaire) were collected in a population-based internet study (HowNutsAreTheDutch; N = 12,503). Data of the subset of participants who completed the above questionnaires (n = 2411) were used for the present study. Regression analyses were performed to predict wellbeing from symptoms, resources, and their interactions. RESULTS:Satisfactory levels of wellbeing (happiness score 6 or higher) were found in a substantial proportion of the participants with psychological symptoms (58% and 30% of those with moderate and severe symptom levels, respectively). The association between symptoms and wellbeing was large and negative (-0.67, P < .001), but less so in persons with high levels of self-defeating humor and in those with a partner and/or pet. Several of the personal strengths and resources had a positive main effect on wellbeing, especially self-enhancing humor, having a partner, and daytime activities. CONCLUSIONS:Cultivating personal strengths and resources, like humor, social/animal company, and daily occupations, may help people preserve acceptable levels of wellbeing despite the presence of symptoms of depression, anxiety, and stress

Promoting the use of elective single embryo transfer in clinical practice

BACKGROUND: The transfer of multiple embryos after in vitro fertilization (IVF) increases the risk of twins and higher-order births. Multiple births are associated with significant health risks and maternal and neonatal complications, as well as physical, emotional, and financial stresses that can strain families and increase the incidence of depression and anxiety disorders in parents. Elective single embryo transfer (eSET) is among the most effective methods to reduce the risk of multiple births with IVF. MAIN BODY: Current societal guidelines recommend eSET for patientsprognosis, yet even this approach is not widely applied. Many patients and clinicians have been reluctant to adopt eSET due to studies reporting higher live birth rates with the transfer of two or more embryos rather than eSET. Additional barriers to eSET include risk of treatment dropout after embryo transfer failure, patient preference for twins, a lack of knowledge about the risks and complications associated with multiple births, and the high costs of multiple IVF cycles. This review provides a comprehensive summary of strategies to increase the rate of eSET, including personalized counseling, access to educational information regarding the risks of multiple pregnancies and births, financial incentives, and tools to help predict the chances of IVF success. The use of comprehensive chromosomal screening to improve embryo selection has been shown to improve eSET outcomes and may increase acceptance of eSET. CONCLUSIONS: eSET is an effective method for reducing multiple pregnancies resulting from IVF. Although several factors may impede the adoption of eSET, there are a number of strategies and tools that may encourage the more widespread adoption of eSET in clinical practice