This chapter introduces Mayu's parents, and the intimate relationship we had with them. There is a flashback to our younger lives, when in our 20s we were racially attacked by a distant relative.

This chapter examines the bi-directional relationship that exists between the menopause and society. It reflects on how a woman’s perception of the menopause is influenced by societal and cultural ideas about menopause, ageing and gender. It reviews how Western societal attitudes towards the menopause have developed over time, in response to scientific developments and medical trends. It also considers the viewpoint that this natural life transition has been over medicalised, and looks at how this life stage is viewed in other cultures. The chapter looks at how an individual woman’s experience of the menopause has an impact on her wider society. It considers the impact that menopausal symptoms can have in the workplace, and in personal relationships including partners, children and other family members. It also speculates about how health economics are affected by women in this life stage.

Sigmund Freud, the father of psychoanalysis, used the Greek myth of Narcissus to describe narcissism. Later psychoanalysts, including Heinz Kohut, Karen Horney, and Otto Kernberg, built on Freud’s foundation to refine the concept. The development of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual (DSM), a compilation of all mental disorders, permitted professionals to diagnose and treat them, including narcissistic personality disorder. Social-personality psychologists took the DSM description and developed psychometric tests to measure grandiose, vulnerable, collective, and other forms of narcissism. Despite professional disagreement about narcissistic personality disorder, it is clear mental health professionals have identified a constellation of traits and behaviors that are recognizable even by laypersons. Exploitativeness and retaliation, both part of narcissism, can be personally and socially harmful.

Football broke down barriers as well as generating hatred during the Cold War. When communist Kim il-Sung’s North Korea arrived in England to play in the 1966 World Cup they were greeted with suspicion and derision. By the time they left three weeks later, the Koreans had set the tournament alight and formed a bond with the people of Middlesbrough, where they trained, that lasts to the present day. This chapter traces North Korea’s astonishing progress at the 1966 World Cup, before focusing on the team’s 5–3 quarter-final defeat to Portugal. It shows how Portugal’s right-wing dictator António Salazar used players from Portugal’s African colonies, like the great Eusébio, to fight the Cold War in the developing world and to cling on to his country’s crumbling imperial authority. By the mid-1970s, Salazar, Portugal’s empire and the golden age of Eusébio were all in the history books. In contrast, North Korea survives. Today, British newspapers still tell stories of Kim il-Sung’s abuse of the players who lost to Portugal, testifying to the game’s resonance and to its role in the ongoing propaganda conflict between the Hermit Kingdom and the West.

This chapter considers how the mainstream success of contemporary African American poets recalls the concerns about public pressure to conform at the expense of expressing Black cultural heritage in verse that Langston Hughes explained well in his 1926 essay "The Negro Artist and the Racial Mountain." Using interviews with the poets and analysis of their poems, the chapter traces the ambivalent reception these poets have perceived and articulates the senses of heritage and innovation by which they maintain their integrity. It concludes that, while Hughes’s concerns remain relevant, contemporary African American poets in the national spotlight have achieved their prominence through a well-earned confidence.

In this chapter, we identify politically significant discursive, phenomenological and practice features of diverse phenomena manifesting as instances of group-based and collective pride. We introduce and work through limitations and oversights of prominent theories of these phenomena in research, for example, on peak collective emotional experiences (e.g., of national pride), collective self-esteem, collective empowerment, effervescence, and social identity features of collective action and ‘psychological groups’. We then explore a family resemblance of overlapping examples of politically relevant positive group pride, negative hubris and ressentiment-ful contempt in intra- and inter-group struggles and conflicts. Deeply problematic, divisive and ‘darker’ forms of collective pride that vary from hubristic leader–follower interactions to intergroup and international relations are examined (including liminal mixed and vacillating features of group narcissism and triumphalism). Central features and sequelae of group hubris are highlighted via a case study of Brexit as a pyrrhic victory for the UK conservative party.

The topic of chapter 6 is unequal representation with particular emphasis on intersecting identities, voice and agency. The chapter digs deeper into the issue of policy priorities with a view to uncover who — and to some extent also what issues — female parliamentarians in the region represent as well as the reasoning behind their choices, not based on voting patterns as has traditionally been the case in such analyses, but anchored in personal narratives. The chapter accordingly explores the quality of representation (symbolic, descriptive and substantive) and helps us gain an understanding of which women and policy areas are represented, and which are underrepresented in politics at the national level, something which has very significant implications for not only climate change mitigation, but also adaptation and impacts. As the analysis progresses, it becomes clear that the female parliamentarians in the MENA tend to represent ‘people like me’, a reality which poses a serious problem for the quality of women’s representation, because the majority of women are simply not represented in earnest.

The routines of hospital life for cancer in-patients, and the self-developed routines within these routines, are discussed here.

This chapter discusses whether the existing IP laws in Europe offer sufficient room for upcycling from the perspective of fundamental rights. It is argued that both the EU Charter and the ECHR may include obligations to facilitate the innovative reuse of materials. This is considered both as a matter of artistic freedom and as a positive obligation to safeguard the right to life, health, and a sustainable environment. From this perspective, existing IP laws may not be accommodating enough of creative and innovative upcycling practices. It is suggested that, as a matter of direct effect of primary EU law, both the Charter and free movement of goods may have a limiting effect on the enforceability of IP rights.