Compared to some European countries, the United States has a weak tradition of labor-based activism.  All too often, this leads to the invisibility of labor issues.  Take for example, this commercial for Simply Orange® brand orange juice. In an attempt to present their product as a natural alternative to other brands, Simply Orange juxtaposes images of natural orange growth with common phrases relating to the structure of a manufacturing organization. The tree is their “plant” (a marvelous pun), the orange blossoms are the “workers” that produce the fruit, and the sun itself becomes “upper management.”

Even though this commercial is humorously centered on the process of producing orange juice, there is not a single human being present in any of the images. It is a story about making a product in which nobody actually makes anything! This message cleverly sells the product, but it also obscures the real labor that went into growing, picking, and juicing the oranges and downplays the contributions to the process made by real people. All that productive effort is condensed into the image of an orange blossom, as if it can be assumed that such production will just naturally occur like an annual blooming.

The reality of orange juice production is much less sunny. According to statistics recently compiled by the Southern Poverty Law Center, there are roughly 20,000 undocumented workers in Florida that are subjected to harsh working conditions as growers compete with imported oranges in a “race to the bottom” for a cheaper production process. The illegal status of many of these workers makes them easily exploited for substandard wages, because they are often afraid to challenge the policies of their employers.

In a Marxist theoretical perspective, the way that these workers are rendered invisible by the public image of the commercial is a prime example of alienation: a tension in modern capitalism in which the workers in a mass-producing industry are separated from the fruits of their labor. Where at first it was merely the physical product that was taken from those who produced it to be sold in the market, now the credit for even participating in the process is being abstractly torn away.

This commercial also challenges the realities of the labor process, associating modern concepts of work organization such as “the plant” and “upper management” with images of natural growth. These associations allow the commercial to imply that their methods of labor organization are somehow rooted in a simpler way of doing things that is more harmonious with the natural order. By hearkening back to these roots, the organization is rendered harmless, as if to say the complexities of modern labor relations do not apply to the simple production of orange juice. All together, the choice to portray the associations in this commercial serves to hide the realities of agricultural production in the United States and limit the viewer’s potential curiosity about the way the process really works.

Evan Stewart is a Ph.D student at the University of Minnesota studying political culture. He is also a member of The Society Pages’ graduate student board, and you can follow him on Twitter. 

(View original at http://thesocietypages.org/socimages)

What Are Anxiety Disorders? is a very detailed infographic from Global Medical Education to help people understand the history, issues and treatments of anxiety disorders.

Anxiety disorders are the commonest psychiatric illnesses globally. There is no test for anxiety disorders like panic disorder, PTSD,OCD or social anxiety disorder and the diagnosis is based on a good history and examination. The signs and symptoms of anxiety disorders are often missed or explained away. Anxiety disorders are also commonly comorbid with other psychiatric disorders particularly mood disorders.

There is no cure for anxiety disorders but very effective treatments are available with a good evidence base. The treatments for anxiety disorders include medications like benzodiazepines, SSRIs or SNRIs or other new generation antidepressants, atypical antipsychotics, as well as augmentation therapies.  Several proven therapies are also efficacious in patients with anxiety disorders. These include cognitive behavior therapy, relaxation training, and prolonged exposure therapy. Yoga and meditation have also demonstrated benefits.

There is a lot of information in this design.  It’s all good, but packing this much information into one infographic is a risk.  On one hand, all of the major information in included in one place.  On the other hand, an infographic this big with this much text will discourage many readers that are looking for a fast and easy explanation.  The overall design can be intimidating to readers that are evaluating the amount of time they would need to invest in understand the information before they start reading.  Many will leave before reading any of the infographic.

Thanks to David for sending in the link!

Emotions aren't just things that happen to us, they are vital components of how we reason, motivate ourselves, think about the past and future and how we communicate with others.

Our emotional selves are sometimes remarkably resilient, sometimes out of control and often difficult to understand. Good feelings inevitably fade, while negative ones can stay with us forever.

To help explore your emotional side, here is my top 10 pick of articles from PsyBlog on the psychology of emotions:

1. Does Keeping Busy Make Us Happy? - People dread being bored and will do almost anything to keep busy, but does keeping busy really make us happy?
2. The Upside of Anger: 6 Psychological Benefits of Getting Mad - We tend to think of anger as a wild, negative emotion, but research finds that anger also has its positive side.
3. 12 Laws of the Emotions - Emotions follow their own rules, like that of situational meaning, habituation, closure and concern.
4. The Psychological Immune System - We get over bad moods much sooner than we predict, thanks to the covert work of the psychological immune system.
5. What “The Love Bridge” Tells Us About How Thoughts and Emotions Interact - How much control do you have over your emotions?
6. The Power of Regret to Shape Our Future - Why people are reluctant to exchange lottery tickets, but will happily exchange pens.
7. 4 Ways Benign Envy is Good For You - Feeling green with envy? If it's the right type of envy, maybe it's no bad thing...
8. Duchenne: Key to a Genuine Smile? - Experiments cast doubt on the classic marker of a genuine smile.
9. The Surprising Power of an Emotional ‘Memory Palace’ - Can a 'memory palace' help you recall happier times, even when life is hard?
10. 4 Life-Savouring Strategies: Which Ones Work Best? - We can increase our positive emotions and life satisfaction by using the right mix of savouring strategies.

Image credit: Alvaro Tapia

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Making Habits, Breaking Habits

In his new book, Jeremy Dean--psychologist and author of PsyBlog--looks at how habits work, why they are so hard to change, and how to break bad old cycles and develop new healthy, creative, happy habits.

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