Mexico, Mar 26 (EFE).- The Argentine neuroscientist Mariano Sigman highlighted in an interview with EFE the power of the word as a tool that has sometimes saved humanity, but can also change the life of a loved one.
“The word saves us; it is a virtuous tool with the ability to rescue us in circumstances that can be tragic,” said Sigman regarding his book “The power of words,” presented this week in Mexico.
Published by the Debate label, from the Penguin Random House publishing group, Sigman reflects in this book on the questions that human beings ask themselves, analyzed from the point of view of science.
“I did not write because I am good at the things that I have told; I wrote it because I’m bad at them and that makes the book more empathetic,” he revealed.
Born in Buenos Aires, Sigman received a doctorate in neuroscience in New York. From his studies, he reflected on feelings and attitudes of people, such as compassion, jealousy or the way of assuming death.
“The book seeks answers to issues that fiction has dealt with. If you think about the natural laboratory of jealousy, there is Proust or Shakespeare, literature and cinema; I looked in science for answers to the questions we ask ourselves,” he confessed.
STREET LAMPS
According to Sigman, human beings tend to compassion, but when it comes to assuming it privately, they do so rigorously, which is highlighted in his book, which is divided into six chapters and ends with a compendium of ideas for a better life. .
“Many times a compassionate reflection arises with a stranger, even with an animal; if you see a dog that has a bad time, you want to do something to change that. The irony is that in the affective circle, that changes. If a son stumbles on the street, there is a critical, reflective tone, ”she explained.
The motto ‘Lamp of the street, darkness of the house’, referring to those who are rigorous with their loved ones, alludes to a matter studied by science. The brain forgets the convenience of being compassionate and that if there is a need to be pedagogical, it is better to assume it later.
“Many times the most important things are delegated to intuition. At school they teach us mathematics, geography, history, but no one teaches us to regulate emotions, to make decisions, decisive things in life”, considered the author.
AMPHIBIANS IN THE SEA OF FICTION
Sigman takes an idea from the Argentine writer Pablo Maurette, for whom humanity is made up of amphibious beings that enter and exit fiction like frogs in water, sometimes without realizing it.
“You fall in the street and at night you tell your wife, I was distracted and I tripped. Being distracted is not part of reality, it is your narrative and your fiction; that starts to define you as a character,” she assured.
How to program the brain from the art of conversation, is a promise of “The power of words”, whose hero is Michael de Montaigne, the best conversationalist of his time, who, after the death of his accomplice, the philosopher Etienne de La Boétie, isolated himself.
“Montaigne locked himself in his castle, began to talk to himself and invented the essay. He thought about issues that were difficult for him, he rehearsed sketches about ideas; he is the charming hero of the book,” Sigman acknowledged.
Loneliness, the possibility of assuming death from gratitude and the fact that human beings are his memory are ideas recreated by the scientist, who demonstrates in his book how the mind is more malleable than we suppose.
In 1962, the so-called missile war brought the world to the brink of nuclear war. The president of the United States, John F. Kennedy, accepted the proposal of his Soviet colleague Nikita Krushov to talk, which saved humanity.
“Kennedy understood that to make the right decision he had to talk and he saved the world. We all have moments of words that have saved us; the word saves; sometimes with a sentence we change the life of a child”; insisted the scientist.
