25/5/2018 0 Comments SWEARING IS GOOD FOR YOU!SWEARING IS GOOD FOR YOU
May 11, 2018 at the Normal? Festival of the Brain, Folkestone Dr Emma Byrne works as a robotics scientist whilst extending her fascination with profanity. Today she posed and answered questions, giving descriptions of research. Does swearing help us? It can reduce stress, encourage teamwork and better friendships, and deal with pain. It can also deflect rather than act as a proxy for physical violence. Why do we swear when in pain? Emma invited a volunteer to leave his hand in ice water for as long as possible, firstly saying only ‘straight’. He later repeated the exercise but was allowed to say ‘shit’. ‘Straight’ resulted 19 seconds whereas ‘shit’ gave 45 seconds. So, had the swearing eased his pain or given him the courage to withstand it? Why is swearing good for us? Apart from anything else, we gain information. For example, in sport we can assess which team is winning by listening. Football fans tend to use ‘shit’ when things are going badly and ‘fuck’ while they are going well. What are swear words? Swearing has been used as a diagnostic tool for over 150 years, yet there is still no definition. There are recognised topics but most gradually lose their potency. Blasphemy has little impact now; sexual terms are becoming less shocking as they are incorporated into more normal language and used as a kind of verbal seasoning. Words used against the individual as in sexism, racism and homophobia are the most taboo now. Why do we resist it? We all have the right to swear but some people are offended and assume others will be too. When we hear swearing we consider our feelings rather than think what it is doing for the speaker or what s/he is trying to do. Do men swear more than women? Some suggest that swearing by women is odious to God and women are too innocent to even understand the words. Huh! It is true that, in public, women are milder in swearing than men, but when together, we say whatever the fuck we want. Emily Bronte wrote swear words when they were appropriate for her characters and that word ‘appropriate’ is crucial in any consideration of swearing. We could have spent longer exploring questions about appropriacy; different languages; animals and swearing; judging or accepting those who swear; physiological effects; etcetera, but we had no time. Did we expect Emma to swear her way through the presentation? Probably. But her use was entirely appropriate and showed how much swearing can enrich what is being said. Joy Pascoe May, 2018. The unedited version is available on http://thesickofthefringe.com/diagnoses/swearing SWEAR!NG IS GO*D F*R YOU! THE AMAZ!NG SC!ENCE OF BAD LANGUAGE by Emma Byrne Profile books 2017 May 2013 – ‘BBC Four Thought’ on the benefits of swearing. The benefits of swearing. RSA Journal (Issue 1, 2017) https://emmabyrnenet.files.wordpress.com
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24/5/2018 0 Comments Dementia Friends DEMENTIA FRIENDS
May 12, 2018 at the Normal? Festival of The Brain, Folkestone Before the Session: Me : Nah! I really don’t think I should go to any of the dementia sessions. Brave Me : Why not? Me : I have my issues and I’m afraid I’ll freak out. Brave Me : Wimp! Given everything you’ve been through, you should be able to deal with anything these days. Go! Keep quiet when you’re there and then find a corner afterwards to blub in! The session was led by Dementia Friends, and they began by asking for words which come to mind when we hear the word ‘Dementia’. Failed memory, confusion, paranoia, losing things, personality changes came out. I thought it strange that nobody mentioned loss and fear. The leaders gave us the five main messages which Dementia Friends want to get across:- 1. Dementia is not a natural part of old age. One in fourteen of over 65s have dementia but some are much younger. 2. Dementia is a disease of the brain. It affects everyone differently. There are over 100 different types of dementia. 3. Dementia is not just about losing memory. It also affects motor skills, sequencing, loss of inhibition, judging distance, perception. 4. It is possible to live well with it. 5. There is more to the person than the dementia. As a description of dementia, we were given the analogy of a person as a bookcase holding books from every memory of her life, with the most recent memories on the top shelf and her childhood ones at the bottom. As the bookcase begins to rock and topple, the books begin to fall off, those from the top shelf (recent events) dropping first. Imagine that most of the books have disappeared while the person could be living on the shelf containing the 50s. What would she not know about? Not just microwaves, smart phones and videos. Would she know what a teabag is, or what it’s for? How would she make a cup of tea? Should you make it for her, or does this possibly undermine her sense of independence! Perhaps the real way to help her is to buy tea rather than teabags. Then five volunteers were stood against a wall, given a slip of paper with details about their particular character and asked about ten tasks: “Could your character do this? If yes, stay still. If not, take one step forward.” Tasks included dressing themselves; making cheese on toast; voting etc. By the end of the tasks, one woman had stepped across half the room; some were in the middle; one had hardly left the wall. We all expected them to have had different characters but we were surprised to learn that they had all had the same. This illustrated how perceptions of dementia vary as widely as the people who have these perceptions. Then in groups of three we had to give exact instructions for making a cup of tea. Some had about 10 stages while one group had 30 showing that just the simplest task can seem difficult: add a physical problem and it becomes a nightmare. So, if you want to help, just plan ahead, create order, use visual clues but don’t actually do it for them. It is beneficial for them to have a sense of accomplishment. One of the most heartening pieces of information for me, a great believer in the power of language, was that it is no longer acceptable to refer to ‘dementia sufferers’. They are ‘people with dementia’. This reflects the way in which changing the term ‘rape victims’ to ‘rape survivors’ has gradually been enlightening the public and given strength to those who have been raped. It is entirely positive, as was this session. After the session Other people: Are you ok? Me: (sniff) Sure. Other people: No, you’re not. What happened? Was it bad? Me: No, it was bloody good. But I should have listened to myself. There were too many connections. Too many contacts. Too many familiar moments. I shouldn’t have gone. I was right. It was scary. I’ll get some wine and forget about it. Other people: Not a good idea! Me: Tough! Joy Pascoe 12.5.2018 Links: Dementia Friends (http://www.dementiafriends.org.uk) Edited version on (http://thesickofthefringe.com/diagnoses/2018/dementiafriends) |
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