Fareeda prefers to be alone. She is not particularly shy - she just derives no pleasure from the company of other people. Her mother constantly nags her to socialise more, her brother calls her a "misanthrope". Fareeda counters the accusation, claiming she is pro-solitude rather than antisocial. Friendless Fareeda is neither sad, nor lonely - just socially anhedonic. At least, that's what the doctor calls her.
The term anhedonia was introduced by the French psychologist Théodule Ribot in 1896 to refer to a diminished capacity for experiencing pleasure. Social anhedonia is the diminished ability to derive pleasure from social contact. Anhedonia is particularly important in psychiatry, where it has become a key symptom of several different mental illnesses, particularly schizophrenia-spectrum disorders, and major depression.
Psychologists have long asserted man's need to belong; we are after all "social animals" and belonging is one of our fundamental social needs. When people begin to systematically avoid social situations we tend to conclude something is going wrong. In some cases, the cause might be social anxiety; a fear that people may reject, ridicule or evaluate us negatively in social situations. In such a case we want to belong, we want social acceptance, but the possibility of rejection is too high a price to pay, so we just avoid the situation. In social anhedonia however, the actual desire for belonging, and the drive for social interaction is just not there at all.
Research looking at both socially anhedonic and socially anxious college students has attempted to quantify the relative levels of isolation, and the different reasons given for self-imposed solitude. One recent study used a technique known as experience sampling to explore this question. This experience sampling study involved contacting students randomly eight times a day, over a period of one week. At each contact the student would report where they were and who they were with. In spite of their people fears, the socially anxious students were actually far more likely to be around people than the socially anhedonic. The socially anxious might play the "wallflower" or the "strong, silent type"; but it is the socially anhedonic who is the true lone wolf. Despite their more frequent solitude, the socially anhedonic had a firmer belief that other people actually wanted them around; it was their preference to be alone.
So what are the implications of this apparent loss of social appetite? Longitudinal research suggests social anhedonia in young adults is a major risk factor for later-life psychiatric problems. One follow-up study looked at two groups of college students; those with higher-than-average levels of social anhedonia, and a control group with fairly normal levels of social functioning. The participants were followed for 10 years. By the time of the final assessment, when most of the participants were entering their early 30s, 24 per cent of the socially anhedonic individuals had experienced a diagnosable psychological disorder, while this was true for only one per cent of the control group. A more recent study using the same high-risk design, this time over a five year period, found that 18 per cent (six out of 32) of the socially anhedonic students developed a severe mental health problem, while none of the control group did.
It is important to note that none of the young people in these studies had any mental health problems in late adolescence, when the studies began. But five or 10 years later, many experienced some of the more severe and enduring mental health problems of our age.
So what happened? One idea proposed by the psychology Professor Thomas Kwapil and colleagues at the University of North Carolina is that social contact, want it or not, provides protection against the onset of severe mental health problems. This protective social contact is decreasingly available as people move into the "real-world", away from family and to some extent college life. For the socially anhedonic who tend not to have, or want social contact, this is a time of particular vulnerability, when solitude and self isolation can intensify and the risk of psychological problems is elevated.
It's paradoxical that in our increasingly populous cities, we are decreasingly able to experience meaningful social contact. Many of us do not even appreciate that we need it. Social contact provided by our fellow human beings promotes mental health, strengthens our resilience, and helps us to flourish. And while people will occasionally drive us crazy, it is important to remember: they also keep us sane.
Justin Thomas is an assistant professor at Zayed University in Abu Dhabi
The Great Derangement: Climate Change and the Unthinkable
Amitav Ghosh, University of Chicago Press
The smuggler
Eldarir had arrived at JFK in January 2020 with three suitcases, containing goods he valued at $300, when he was directed to a search area.
Officers found 41 gold artefacts among the bags, including amulets from a funerary set which prepared the deceased for the afterlife.
Also found was a cartouche of a Ptolemaic king on a relief that was originally part of a royal building or temple.
The largest single group of items found in Eldarir’s cases were 400 shabtis, or figurines.
Khouli conviction
Khouli smuggled items into the US by making false declarations to customs about the country of origin and value of the items.
According to Immigration and Customs Enforcement, he provided “false provenances which stated that [two] Egyptian antiquities were part of a collection assembled by Khouli's father in Israel in the 1960s” when in fact “Khouli acquired the Egyptian antiquities from other dealers”.
He was sentenced to one year of probation, six months of home confinement and 200 hours of community service in 2012 after admitting buying and smuggling Egyptian antiquities, including coffins, funerary boats and limestone figures.
For sale
A number of other items said to come from the collection of Ezeldeen Taha Eldarir are currently or recently for sale.
Their provenance is described in near identical terms as the British Museum shabti: bought from Salahaddin Sirmali, "authenticated and appraised" by Hossen Rashed, then imported to the US in 1948.
- An Egyptian Mummy mask dating from 700BC-30BC, is on offer for £11,807 ($15,275) online by a seller in Mexico
- A coffin lid dating back to 664BC-332BC was offered for sale by a Colorado-based art dealer, with a starting price of $65,000
- A shabti that was on sale through a Chicago-based coin dealer, dating from 1567BC-1085BC, is up for $1,950
Mercer, the investment consulting arm of US services company Marsh & McLennan, expects its wealth division to at least double its assets under management (AUM) in the Middle East as wealth in the region continues to grow despite economic headwinds, a company official said.
Mercer Wealth, which globally has $160 billion in AUM, plans to boost its AUM in the region to $2-$3bn in the next 2-3 years from the present $1bn, said Yasir AbuShaban, a Dubai-based principal with Mercer Wealth.
“Within the next two to three years, we are looking at reaching $2 to $3 billion as a conservative estimate and we do see an opportunity to do so,” said Mr AbuShaban.
Mercer does not directly make investments, but allocates clients’ money they have discretion to, to professional asset managers. They also provide advice to clients.
“We have buying power. We can negotiate on their (client’s) behalf with asset managers to provide them lower fees than they otherwise would have to get on their own,” he added.
Mercer Wealth’s clients include sovereign wealth funds, family offices, and insurance companies among others.
From its office in Dubai, Mercer also looks after Africa, India and Turkey, where they also see opportunity for growth.
Wealth creation in Middle East and Africa (MEA) grew 8.5 per cent to $8.1 trillion last year from $7.5tn in 2015, higher than last year’s global average of 6 per cent and the second-highest growth in a region after Asia-Pacific which grew 9.9 per cent, according to consultancy Boston Consulting Group (BCG). In the region, where wealth grew just 1.9 per cent in 2015 compared with 2014, a pickup in oil prices has helped in wealth generation.
BCG is forecasting MEA wealth will rise to $12tn by 2021, growing at an annual average of 8 per cent.
Drivers of wealth generation in the region will be split evenly between new wealth creation and growth of performance of existing assets, according to BCG.
Another general trend in the region is clients’ looking for a comprehensive approach to investing, according to Mr AbuShaban.
“Institutional investors or some of the families are seeing a slowdown in the available capital they have to invest and in that sense they are looking at optimizing the way they manage their portfolios and making sure they are not investing haphazardly and different parts of their investment are working together,” said Mr AbuShaban.
Some clients also have a higher appetite for risk, given the low interest-rate environment that does not provide enough yield for some institutional investors. These clients are keen to invest in illiquid assets, such as private equity and infrastructure.
“What we have seen is a desire for higher returns in what has been a low-return environment specifically in various fixed income or bonds,” he said.
“In this environment, we have seen a de facto increase in the risk that clients are taking in things like illiquid investments, private equity investments, infrastructure and private debt, those kind of investments were higher illiquidity results in incrementally higher returns.”
The Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, one of the largest sovereign wealth funds, said in its 2016 report that has gradually increased its exposure in direct private equity and private credit transactions, mainly in Asian markets and especially in China and India. The authority’s private equity department focused on structured equities owing to “their defensive characteristics.”
COMPANY PROFILE
Name: Qyubic
Started: October 2023
Founder: Namrata Raina
Based: Dubai
Sector: E-commerce
Current number of staff: 10
Investment stage: Pre-seed
Initial investment: Undisclosed
If you go
The flights
Emirates and Etihad fly direct to Nairobi, with fares starting from Dh1,695. The resort can be reached from Nairobi via a 35-minute flight from Wilson Airport or Jomo Kenyatta International Airport, or by road, which takes at least three hours.
The rooms
Rooms at Fairmont Mount Kenya range from Dh1,870 per night for a deluxe room to Dh11,000 per night for the William Holden Cottage.
THE SPECS
Engine: 1.5-litre
Transmission: 6-speed automatic
Power: 110 horsepower
Torque: 147Nm
Price: From Dh59,700
On sale: now
Tenet
Director: Christopher Nolan
Stars: John David Washington, Robert Pattinson, Elizabeth Debicki, Dimple Kapadia, Michael Caine, Kenneth Branagh
Rating: 5/5
SPEC%20SHEET%3A%20SAMSUNG%20GALAXY%20Z%20FOLD5
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Key facilities
- Olympic-size swimming pool with a split bulkhead for multi-use configurations, including water polo and 50m/25m training lanes
- Premier League-standard football pitch
- 400m Olympic running track
- NBA-spec basketball court with auditorium
- 600-seat auditorium
- Spaces for historical and cultural exploration
- An elevated football field that doubles as a helipad
- Specialist robotics and science laboratories
- AR and VR-enabled learning centres
- Disruption Lab and Research Centre for developing entrepreneurial skills
