You can be empathetic today but not tomorrow because it will depend on the moment and circumstance in which you understand and share other people’s emotional states. A person does not go through life being empathic in a consistent way, that is, over time and between situations, which are precisely the characteristics that distinguish the words or expressions with which trends are alluded to (i.e., personality). Again, logical confusion brings conceptual confusion, which brings methodological confusion and, finally, interpretive confusion. Hence, you are now wondering, what is the underlying factor known as resilience in this instrument? Considering the diversity of factors or dimensions, some of which could eventually be said to be part of the phenomenology of the psychological, but others not, the only thing that remains clear is that the disposition or the underlying factor called resilience is all that that one or more authors want to say what it is; no more no less.
The reader will notice that of all the factors or dimensions included in Table 3; a good part cannot be placed within a general category of analysis of and about the psychological, or even within one of the social; others, the strictly psychological ones, include capacities, inclinations or propensities as well as feelings. Therefore, how can a concept of resilience, defined by the authors as adaptive capacities, include factors or dimensions of such diverse nomenclature? Ultimately, it asks, what is, then, the usefulness, relevance or advantage of a concept alien to psychology, which lacks its own conceptual identity and includes in its content as many factors or dimensions as the authors include, regardless of whether or not they are psychological?
Let us pose a challenge to the reader, which will be asked in the form of a question, clarifying in advance that we do so in a respectful tone and free from euphemistic overtones: what would the author of this work think, continuing these practices so sui generis of our contemporary psychology, make sure of the following. Given that there is a general condition of biological vulnerability called “malnutrition,” 7 he unexpectedly adopts the term, redefines it and theoretically argues that psychological malnutrition exists. In principle, the reader may tell himself that the author is making symbolic use of the concept of malnutrition. The author then proposes to “measure” psychological malnutrition based on an instrument that would include the following 12 factors or dimensions, i.e., intrapersonal “psychic” competencies, motor skills, coping with psycho-bio-socio-cultural stress, sense of humour, and so on.
Once the instrument, which consists of 120 questions (10 per factor or dimension), has been designed, the author submits it to rigorous statistical tests to test its psychometric properties. Assuming that all indicators of goodness of fit were adequate at the end of the process, could the reader question or question the relevance of the concept of psychological malnutrition and the underlying factors or dimensions?
If he thought about it, he outlined at least a smile and questioned the relevance of the concept, the instrument and those results; I allow myself to congratulate him; he is on the right track to start, if he has not already done so, an arduous, brutal fight, with enormous setbacks, but at the same time necessary and urgent: against those sui generis practices, very typical of those who conceive that psychology and the psychological can be anything at hand, and why not, even what can be invented; which means that we must fight in favour of psychology with its own identity. And I allow myself to congratulate you, also, because you will surely have understood that modelling with structural equations is a methodological support tool; It is not the quintessence or the magic wand with which the theoretical and conceptual problems of contemporary psychology will be solved (reading Burgos, 2001 is recommended).
Otherwise, unfortunately, he will accept that there is psychological malnutrition, that there are also phenomena such as psychological hypertension, perceptual-affective-behavioural immunology and psycho-endocrinological-social life cycle. Eventually, he will adapt the instrument, conduct research and propose intervention programs to reduce psychological malnutrition, yes, all in the name of science! You may even be interested in being part of the group of psychologists who develop the theory of psychological malnutrition. However, it is necessary to clarify to this second reading that the concept, the instrument and its factors, and the results obtained, were nothing more than the product of imagination.
Neuroscience constitutes necessary support for work on resilience since it provides the scientific basis that shows that the human brain can adapt to changes through neural plasticity. “This ‘adaptability’ of the brain allows the human being to have faith in the future and overcome situations in which there seems to be no way out,” he points out.
Santos explains that his work in this line began more than 15 years ago in people who had gone through significant trauma such as catastrophes, terrorism or rapes, all of the situations that usually produce post-traumatic stress. The psychiatrist points out that the consultations of people affected by similar symptoms but with a more common problem such as a job loss or a romantic break up have increased in the last five years.
In this sense, the development of greater resilience and being aware of the existence of this human capacity represent an opportunity to overcome the challenges that arise on a day-to-day basis and to be prepared for those two or three traumatic events that occur in the life of every person and that they can get to ‘break’ it, in the words of the psychiatrist.
As a general rule, the specialist points out that there are four areas in which work is done to overcome the trauma:
- The acceptance of reality
- The adaptation or reformulation of life after the trauma
- The construction of a social support network and the search for meaning or purpose in life
Currently, our countries are experiencing a state of decomposition of the social fabric, with alarming symptoms; infantilization of poverty, destruction of the family, school dropouts, increased drug use, increased violence and other causes that have severe socio-cultural consequences. Faced with this discouraging panorama, we find ourselves without an answer, and in thinking about new actions, we believe that promoting resilience leads to the reconstruction of individual and collective subjectivities. And in front of that individual of postmodern society, individualistic, consumer, exclusive, wild competitor, obsessed with possessing material things; we place ourselves in a struggle for another society, which privileges us, the social network, solidarity, the community, which recognizes the other as a new human being, worthy of trust and from whom something is expected.
The report carried out by the committee on the rights of the child in Uruguay says, “That marginality and social exclusion is a growing phenomenon in our country is a dramatic reality that should concern us; that for its part poverty is concentrated and in children and adolescents, harming their development and damaging their future, is a reality that should move us. “Uruguay has the highest rate of the adult population and the lowest rate of children under 15 years of age on the continent.” “The main problem of the country is that its biological reproduction has been installed in sectors of extreme poverty … incorporated in this circuit to almost half of the children born in its territory
