Royal Road Research Articles

They Might Be Giants: The Creative Interplay of Literature and Psychology

In the sometimes seemingly quixotic quest to overcome the loneliness of our human condition, a main driver of discovery is the interplay of literature and psychology, the core dynamic fueling the human imagination from the picaresque journeys of Cervantes to the royal road that Freud traveled down in his interpretation of dreams. They might be Giants. In her posthumously published paper on loneliness, Dr. Fromm-Reichmann explores the creative interplay between literature and psychology, which stimulates our understanding as readers and our receptivity as an audience, while in turn, inspiring creative artists like Fellini, who began his mythical journey in La Strada, found his guiding ideals in Jungian analysis and who completed the realization of his collective vision in 8 ½.

Cooperative spin crossover leading to bistable and multi-inert system states in an iron(III) complex

Cooperativity among spin centres has long been the royal road in spin crossover (SCO) research to impose magnetic bistability in terms of thermal hysteresis. In this work we access magnetic multi-inert states of the iron(III) compound {FeL2[B(Ph)4]} ≡ FeB at low temperature, in addition to thermal bistability. The packing of the low-spin and high-spin forms of crystalline FeB differs only marginally what ultimately leads to structural conservatism. This indicates that the SCO-immanent breathing of the complex cation is almost fully compensated by the anion matrix. The unique cooling rate dependence of the residual low-temperature magnetisation in FeB unveils continuous switching between the trapped high-spin (ON) and the relaxed low-spin state (OFF). The macroscopic ratio of the spin states (ON:OFF) can be adjusted as a simple function of the cooling rate. That is, cooperative spin crossover can be the source of bistable and multi-inert system states in the very same material.

Unveiling the royal road to happiness: the predictive role of psychological hardiness, mediated by vitality and materialistic values

ABSTRACT The quest for happiness is highly esteemed in every culture. Based on the theory of the positive activity model, the current study examined the role of psychological hardiness in happiness among youth. The study also investigated the parallel mediating role of vitality and materialistic values in the relationship between psychological hardiness and happiness. Data were collected from 414 youths selected through purposive sampling techniques. The variables of the study were measured through standardized instruments. Findings generated through structural equation modelling with the maximum likelihood estimation technique revealed that psychological hardiness was a significant predictor of happiness. Additionally, vitality and materialistic values partially mediated the relationship between psychological hardiness and happiness. The present study is one of the first to include vitality and materialistic values as a parallel intermediary mechanism to explain the relationship between psychological hardiness and happiness. Implications of the study are discussed in light of the study findings.

Dynamic consent: a royal road to research consent?

In recent years, the principle of informed consent has come under significant pressure with the rise of biobanks and data infrastructures for medical research. Study-specific consent is unfeasible in the...

No Royal Road: Urban Transportation, Capitalist Development, and Monarchy in Thailand

ABSTRACT This article examines the role of the Thai monarchy in shaping urban transportation in Bangkok, Thailand’s capital and one of the world’s most congested cities. With an inquiry into the history of Bangkok under the reign of the previous king, Rama IX, the narratives of city staff who received the monarch’s guidance, and the king’s initiatives that relate to city planning, this article illustrates the problematic role of the monarchy in urban transportation. While the palace and the Bangkok Metropolitan Administration have saluted Rama IX’s initiatives for building more ring roads, overpasses, and bridges to solve traffic congestion, this article argues that these royal initiatives failed to address the roots of the problem. These include an excessive reliance on motor vehicles, insufficient public transportation, the dominant role of the automotive industry in the national economy, city planning that serves middle-class drivers at the expense of the mass of commuters, the close association between the crown and car companies, and the unconstitutional role of the monarchy in such matters. Swept under the rug during the historic reign of Rama IX, these problems have started to come to light in the current reign of Rama X.

Crossover can guarantee exponential speed-ups in evolutionary multi-objective optimisation

Evolutionary algorithms are popular algorithms for multi-objective optimisation (also called Pareto optimisation) as they use a population to store trade-offs between different objectives. Despite their popularity, the theoretical foundation of multi-objective evolutionary optimisation (EMO) is still in its early development. Fundamental questions such as the benefits of the crossover operator are still not fully understood. We provide a theoretical analysis of the well-known EMO algorithms GSEMO and NSGA-II to showcase the possible advantages of crossover: we propose classes of “royal road” functions on which these algorithms cover the whole Pareto front in expected polynomial time if crossover is being used. But when disabling crossover, they require exponential time in expectation to cover the Pareto front. The latter even holds for a large class of black-box algorithms using any elitist selection and any unbiased mutation operator. Moreover, even the expected time to create a single Pareto-optimal search point is exponential. We provide two different function classes, one tailored for one-point crossover and another one tailored for uniform crossover, and we show that some immune-inspired hypermutations cannot avoid exponential optimisation times. Our work shows the first example of an exponential performance gap through the use of crossover for the widely used NSGA-II algorithm and contributes to a deeper understanding of its limitations and capabilities.

ARCHAIC KNOSSOS, ARCHAEOLOGICAL NARRATIVES, AND CONSERVATISM IN CRETAN MATERIAL CULTURE

This study addresses a longstanding historical and archaeological problem at the central Cretan urban centre of Knossos. This is the so-called ‘Archaic gap’, an apparent dearth of evidence for sixth-century BCE material culture across the extensively excavated city. The concept of a pronounced Knossian decline or recession at this time has been reaffirmed in recent years, with widespread repercussions for Cretan archaeology. By reconsidering ceramics from the Royal Road North and Unexplored Mansion excavations, as well as situating these deposits within their urban and regional contexts, I question the epistemological foundations of the Knossian gap and provide new directions for identifying sixth-century Knossian material culture. I propose that the apparent ‘gap’ is a product of several factors: (1) a relative disinterest in imports in sixth-century Knossos, (2) a dispersed, rather than densely nucleated, urban settlement pattern, and (3) a previously unrecognised conservatism in Knossian ceramics, where some of the ‘Orientalising’ styles traditionally dated to the seventh century were retained into the sixth. This phenomenon of conservatism differs in important ways from the ‘restraint’ or ‘austerity’ that has been previously proposed as characteristic of Archaic and Classical Crete.

Grand entretien avec François Laplantine

ObjectiveBased on an interview with François Laplantine, anthropologist and professor emeritus at the University Lumière Lyon 2, the aim is to explore the main milestones in his career, from the philosophy of evil to the anthropology of illness and ethnopsychiatry, in particular psychoanalytic ethnopsychiatry, then from work on Brazil and Japan to a focus on the theme of artistic creation. MethodThe method consists of an interview with François Laplantine. The questions deal first with his personal background, then with the reasons for the evolution of the themes on which his works are based, and finally with his exploration of various fields of creation: literature, cinema, theatre and contemporary dance. ResultsFrançois Laplantine describes his transition from the philosophy of evil, with his first thesis in philosophy under the supervision of Paul Ricœur, to the anthropology of illness, with his encounter with Devereux. He describes his work on the question of métissages, then his transition from psychoanalysis to an initiation into Candomblé in Brazil, a practice of the multiple that he likens to different forms of theatre in France. He then traces the evolution of his writings from his explorations in Brazil and Japan to artistic creation, particularly literature, music, dance, and film. He discusses the work of many artists, as well as different types of staging of disasters, particularly minimalist stagings in Japanese theatre, with nō and butô. The question of language, of the unspeakable and the invisible, appears central to his work in relation to creation. He also discusses his work on the imaginary and the off-screen, as well as on time and space, in relation to the issue of creation. DiscussionFrançois Laplantine defends the idea that one of the missions of contemporary arts is to attempt to express catastrophe; he explores the limits of language and argues that one of the functions of theatre, and even more so of contemporary dance, is to stage the drama of the inadequacy of language. Recourse to artistic creation is a necessity, in the tension between telling and showing. ConclusionExploring artistic creation appears to be a royal road for an anthropologist like François Laplantine.

Re-opening the Royal Road: The Unquiet War Dead of the Northern Marianas Islands

This article explores intersecting experiences of landscapes of death in the Northern Marianas islands, in the shadow of brutal battles during World War II. My discussion builds upon prior work on how the human body registers personal and historical trauma. I emphasize that in East Asian and Pacific contexts, “the body” is often best understood as extending into the immediate spatial environs, to include topography, air and water flows, and floral and faunal entities. Ritual process of healing this traumatized somatized land-person continuum revolve around reworking the body-landscape matrix, reconfiguring the ontological status of those who perished under horrific circumstances.

Untimely Proposals for Philosophical Studies of Go

There is no royal road to philosophy. Thanks to Go, however, I have come to be a happy retired professor of philosophy. Go not only led me to the Socratic tradition of knowing nothing but my ignorance but also provided me with ample sources of inspiration for my philosophical journey. As a consequence, I have more difficult questions than ever. Since there is no hope for me to find answers to them shortly, I would like to present proposals to tackle them with all members of the International Society of Go Studies.

The Use of the Internet and the Hospitality of Hotels In The Old Royal Road

The research presents a diagnosis using the internet and hospitality in hotels of Old Royal Road path in the scope of Ouro Preto (Minas Gerais) to Paraty (Rio de Janeiro) as a competitive edge, and that affects the volume of Bookings for these hotels. A study of 17 hotels in seven (7) cities in the Old Royal Road was made. The survey found the relationship between hotels and their customers, forms of dissemination of projects and realization of reserves, as well as knowledge of managers regarding the implementation and expansion of Internet use. The research method is a multiple-case survey with semi-structured interviews. Observation of processes and document analysis were used for data collection adopted in the preparation of this work. Respondents were hotel managers and owners, case study object. The research also demonstrates the considerable growth of internet use in hotels surveyed, the features of websites, and especially the business opportunities to increase competitiveness. Using technology to research and compare prices, brands, forms of payment, and detailed information on the products and services without leaving home seduces the consumer. The hotel industry is also increasingly integrating with the virtual world process and getting hit with customers.

Prospects and challenges in the use of puppets in developmental psychology: Royal road to the child’s mind or a dead end?

In order to examine young children, developmental science has relied extensively on puppets, dolls, and animated stimuli. While some scholars regarded this as a royal road to the child’s mind and competencies, others conceived of it as a dead end. This article introduces the debate on the use of puppets and other simplified stimuli in developmental psychology. It presents key theoretical and methodological arguments that are offered for both sides. In addition, it introduces a special issue that has collected theoretical and empirical contributions on how children process puppets, dolls, and animated stimuli as well as to illustrate the benefits and challenges of their use in developmental research. Finally, the article suggests avenues for further research.

Témoigner aux procès après une catastrophe sociale : une tentative de restauration des garants métasociaux démocratiques

ContextThis study explores the subjective and group repercussions of forced disappearance in the context of Latin American dictatorships in the 1970s. To comprehend the dynamics of such state violence, the study draws on a psychoanalytic approach of groups and institutions. The political repression during this era leads to a “social catastrophe” (Puget et al., 1989): following the collapse of democratic meta-social guarantors, the socio-political and institutional context becomes unrecognizable. In the aftermath of numerous crimes legitimized by the juntas, relatives of the disappeared have been fighting for decades against the impunity of the culprits, demanding justice be served. ObjectivesThe study aims to explore the various functions associated with testifying in trials for relatives of the disappeared. MethodAs part of a qualitative study, we interviewed twenty-nine relatives of disappeared people living in Switzerland. We analyzed the semi-structured interviews using thematic content analysis. We present some of the results of the cross-sectional analyses, illustrating them with a case study emblematic of the whole. ResultsFor relatives of the disappeared, testifying in a trial seems to be a royal road to actively participate in the restoration of democratic meta-social guarantors. In doing so, these relatives seek support from a collective and particularly from institutions, especially when these institutions regain their protective function against state violence. By testifying, they contribute to revitalizing narcissistic contracts and, more broadly, attempt to humanize not only the disappeared person but also their relatives and the perpetrators. InterpretationMemory work and the struggle for justice appear to be prevalent in the practices undertaken by close relatives of the disappeared, even fifty years later. Some of these relatives feel invested with a mission to memorialize and denounce political crimes in order to place them within history and to combat systematic erasure of crimes. This mission also allows them to symbolize, as far as possible, the catastrophe and their own history. This research is of course limited by the number of participants and the unique research interview. Further studies on the subjective and group repercussions of such state crimes and their transgenerational impact would be relevant to promote clinical listening to the relatives of the disappeared and their descendants.

The (Im)possibility of the ‘Royal Road to Global Psychology’

The (Im)possibility of the ‘Royal Road to Global Psychology’

Staging enmity: reading populist productions of shame with Jelinek's On the Royal Road.

Background: Populism is often perceived as a shamelessly loud segment of political discourse. However, Jelinek's play On the Royal Road, written on the occasion of Trump's 2016 election as US president, suggests that populism leads to societal silencing. Jelinek's text expounds that when a society's public sphere is marked by ubiquitous enmity against an imagined "we", grounded in antagonism, then the possibility of speaking to one another disappears, because speaking to one another is based on the willingness to give one's counterpart space and listen to them. In a public discourse that stages enmity, the counterpart vanishes. Therefore, populism, loud as it is, leads to the silencing of whole communities insofar as they are left with nothing in common but enmity. Method: Critical discourse analysis is used to contextualise close readings of select passages of Jelinek's play with recent social sciences and humanities research on global populisms to highlight what literary language and the dramatic form can contribute to understanding populism. Results: The silencing populisms entail is fed, in large part, by a dynamics linking the interpersonal emotion of shame to its discursive exploitation in shamelessness and shaming: populist voices transgress rules of democratic debate in the public sphere to elicit outrage by mainstream politics, media, and civil society, which often retort populist shamelessness by shaming populist actors. The audience excitement populist leaders and supporters generate is an important factor in normalizing the emotional, moralizing populist polarization of "us" versus "them" that undermines differentiated discussion and a dispute of arguments. Conclusion: While media and research commonly suggest that with the populist reduction of politics to a spectacle, citizens become a passive audience, the article expounds that audiences play a key role in the production of populist enmity. This insight offers an alley to counteract populism.

The Royal Road Progression in Japanese Popular Music

Abstract The so-called royal road progression (RRP), whose archetypal lead-sheet representation is F–G–Em–Am, is a distinctive feature of modern Japanese popular music. The RRP arose from the manipulation of basic elements of diatonic harmony and coexists with several closely related progressions in J-pop style. Composers often use the RRP to lend Aeolian flavor to major-key songs; however, the RRP is a tonally flexible pattern. After presenting a typology of phrases that use the RRP, I argue that the progression can articulate partial tonic function and can induce a binary tonal system, which occupies the conceptual space between tonal pairing and double-tonic complex. I also provide a diachronic account of the RRP as an element of J-pop history and pop-music history in general. By relating the concepts of partial tonic function and binary tonal system to the RRP, this paper gives insight into the understudied harmonic language of J-pop and invites application of the concepts to other musics.

Hydroiodic-Acid-Initiated Dense yet Porous Ti3 C2 Tx MXene Monoliths toward Superhigh Areal Energy Storage.

The assembly of 3Dstructured materials from 2Dunits paves a royal road for building thick and dense electrodes, which are long sought after for practical energy-storage devices. 2D transitional metal carbides (MXene) are promising for this due to their capabilities of solution-based assembly and intrinsic high density, yet face huge challenges in yielding high areal capacitance electrodes owing to the absence of porous ion-transport paths. Here, a gelation-densification process initiated by hydroiodide acids (HI) is proposed, where the protons break the electrostatic balance of MXene nanosheets to trigger gelation, while HI serves as a spacer to prevent nanosheets from restacking during capillary shrinkage. More promising, the controlled evaporation of reductive HI leaves superiorly shrinking yet porous network for ion transport, and the produced monoliths exhibit a high density of 2.74g cm-3 and an unprecedented areal capacitance of 18.6 F cm-2 .

THINKING THE DREAM: DREAM AND DREAM THINKING IN SIGMUND FREUD, HANNA SEGAL, AND WILFRED BION.

In the dream and its interpretation, psychoanalysis, in its founding period around 1900, identified the "royal road to a knowledge of the unconscious in the psychic life." But already in the development of Freud's work itself, the dream lost its central position: As early as in the 1920s, psychoanalysis ceased to be a theory and practice defined by dream interpretation-a caesura in a process which completed itself in 1950. Two further developments proved, up to the present day, particularly momentous for the conception of the dream: Melanie Klein's development of the concept of "unconscious phantasy" and the extension of psychoanalytic treatment to psychosis, originally declared inaccessible to psychoanalytic therapy by Freud. This article draws an itinerary of this path and the subsequent fundamental changes in the psychoanalytic reflection on the dream affecting the whole of psychoanalysis until today, by casting spotlights on essential stations: conceptions of the dream developed by Hanna Segal and Wilfred Bion, the latter's theory perpetuating Freud's dream theory as well as it conceptualizes dreams, dreaming, and thinking in a fundamentally new way.

The context in conditional cash transfer (CCT) programs: A royal road to health service utilization to the poor?

This study addresses the challenges facing Conditional Cash Transfer Programs (CCT) by investigating whether recipients are satisfied with health services and how contextual factors affect the utilization of health services. The study used binary logistic regression to determine households’ satisfaction with health facility services and was guided by the theory of change and expectation disconfirmation theory, with independent variables being the contextual factors. Generally, 68.66% of health facility service recipients are satisfied, compared to 31.34% who are not. At 95% confidence interval, an increase in household head education and household members is likely to increase satisfaction with health facility services, while service delays and beliefs in traditional medications are likely to negatively affect satisfaction to around 30% or more. The study calls for constant and continual collaboration between CCT program designers and implementers and health facility service providers, who have a significant role to play in reducing service delays. Moreover, it emphasizes the necessity for contextual factors to be considered in promoting health utilization, which is at the heart of CCT program health conditionality compliance. The study’s outcome highlights the need for additional efforts to be focused on the design and implementation of the CCT program, particularly in improving contextual factors, which are often given less attention.

Reconstructing the ancient route network in the Thailand–Cambodia borders: A case study of the Angkorian Royal Road

AbstractA large number of ancient remnants from the Angkor kingdom of the 15th–19th centuries are widely observable across present day north‐eastern Thailand and Cambodia. Archaeologically, these features represent the ancient communities and were possibly connected according to various socioeconomic reasons. In order to reconstruct the route of human mobility between the remains, the geographic information system (GIS)‐based least cost path (LCP) analysis was employed along the Angkor–Phimai route. By recognizing the geographic parameters, the mobility of 292 moated sites was tracked to eight mountain passes that traverse the barrier of the Dângrêk Mountain Range. The LCP‐derived routes revealed that the Ta Muen pass was the most suitable (shortest source‐to‐site distance) route for almost all moated sites. When compared with a previous interpretation of the Angkorian Royal Road route, our LCP route conforms reasonably well when overlaid with this possible Royal Road. The locations of ancient activities were also in the vicinity of the dense LCP route, and most monuments were located within a 1.5 km buffer line. This underlines that the LCP track obtained in this study is reasonable with a high reliability and is beneficial for guiding further studies to find out more about the ancient remains or archaeological evidence in this area.