Last night at the Oscars Will Smith slapped Chris Rock for making a joke about his wife's alopecia. We sought the views of psychologists and wellbeing experts.

psychology

clinical psychology

life psychology

social psychology

hypnotherapy 

Will Smith slaps Chris Rock

"While I would never condone violence, this incident has shown that often there is a context to attacks. In my work with individuals with learning disabilities who present behavioural challenges, often the context of their behaviour is poorly understood or ignored. Comments, attitudes and environments can all trigger past traumas, reigniting someone’s memories of a situation where they were extremely afraid and so went into a fight or flight response. It would appear that for Will Smith the comedian’s comments triggered him and he felt he had to take action to defend his wife and himself."

HRD Consultancy exists to help Managers of Care Service Providers for people with learning disabilities and complex behaviours to provide high quality, values based, psychologically informed care even if the service users present with behaviours that are extremely challenging. Without my help, these managers will experience the constant worry of whether they’ll pass the next CQC inspection and the worry of whether there will be safeguarding issues within the home and they will be struggling with staff sickness and retention levels. If they continue to allow this problem to exist it can lead to greater scrutiny from the CQC and the Local Authority, the loss of income as the local authority move service users to other care providers and ultimately the threat of closure. This is in addition to the stress on themselves working in stressful environments and the impact that this has upon them, their families, the staff and their families and the negative effect on service users.

HRD Consultancy

Dr Hannah Dennis

"Showcasing violence when you are in a position of prominence and a role model across the world is never something that we should be celebrating, but there is a clear history of jokes of this nature being aimed at families, which while potentially not intended to offend can be traumatic over time and build up to moments where we are triggered into behaviours that are extreme reactions to continual abuse and invalidation.

"With alopecia being a challenge due to society's modern beauty standards, it is no surprise that it will have had an impact on Smith and his family unit. Smith will likely have faced many challenges himself being microaggressed against and to him this will have felt like abuse from someone he considered an ally, on the world stage in front of the industry he works in.

"Ultimately this episode shines a light on how stressful and triggering it can be to have your conditions mocked and laughed at in front an audience. While Will's actions will make the headlines, we should take a moment to consider Jada's everyday lived experience and become more aware of how making jokes can be hurtful in our lives." 

Essentialise Workplace Wellbeing is a workplace wellbeing company founded by psychologist Lee Chambers. They work with clients on the intersection between wellbeing, organisational culture and performance. They assist SME's with wellbeing strategy, and how to measure wellbeing impact with data so it can be evolved. They also deliver wellbeing workshops into multinational organisations, focusing on psychological safety, resilience, stress and sleep. Based in Preston in Lancashire, they work with clients to ensure that wellbeing is sustainable and generates a strong business case, while improving employee engagement, happiness and ultimately their health outcomes.

Essentialise Workplace Wellbeing

Lee Chambers

"At times of stress and pressure we often revert to our earliest learned and witnessed coping strategies. This will look different among individuals depending on their experiences and whether they have been able to process any traumas. We can of course understand people's feelings being hurt and feeling threatened and sad that physical appearance has been brought into play when emotions are already running high. However, the issue which divides is the physical violence which was involved and the pre-meditated way in which it was delivered. This did not appear to be as spur of the moment as it may seem. It takes time to get out of a seat and walk to a stage. Seeing public violence on a global scale goes against everything we tell our own young people. I think it will be interesting to see the impact on the box office in the longer term as people may well vote with their wallets."

Good Thinking Psychological Services is owned and run by Dr Marianne Trent, a Clinical Psychologist specialising in grief and trauma. She is the author of 2 books: 'The Grief Collective: Stories of Life, Loss & Learning to Heal' and 'The Clinical Psychologist Collective: Advice & Guidance for Aspiring Clinical Psychologists.' She is trained in Eye Movement Desensitisation & Reprocessing therapy (EMDR) which is a specialist intervention for processing trauma. She approaches her clinical work in trauma and grief from a compassion-focused therapy stance and this can be seen within all of her media work too. She has been featured across many media outlets including being interviewed live on the BBC News and in publications such as: The Guardian, The Telegraph, BBC online, HuffPost and more. She has worked in a wide range of settings including: Adult mental health, child and adolescent mental health (CAMHS), Intellectual Disabilities, Older Adults, Forensic adolescents, Forensic adults / older adults, organic cognitive impairments (dementias), parenting, physical health & traumatic brain injury so she is able to speak to most topics with compassion and professionalism.

Will Smith slaps Chris Rock

3 responses from the Newspage community

Dr Hannah Dennis

Director / Clinical Psychologist at HRD Consultancy

Lee Chambers

Founder / Psychologist at Essentialise Workplace Wellbeing

Dr Marianne Trent

Clinical Psychologist at Good Thinking Psychological Services