A few days ago psychiatrist Marian Rojas Estepé went to the El Hormiguero television program to talk about mental health. However, their expressions such as “poisoning dopamine” or that “the only two things that give meaning to life are love and work” have crossed Pablo Motos’ program and have been questioned by other professionals in the psychology sector and neuroscience. Its biological reductionism – focused on hormonal chemistry – and its disconnection with social reality are closer, they say, of meritocracy than of science. And although their arguments are not exclusive, they have been detonating to question a common discourse among many coaches of self -help.
“It is a dissemination that asks you to dances, which asks you to sing, while the world burns around you,” said the researcher in neuropsychology Nacho Roura, one of the first voices to revolize against the mantras of the disseminator, in A video that accumulates tens of thousands of reactions On your Instagram profile.
One of the arguments of Rojas Estepé is that the mood is basically explained by cortisol fluctuations – known as stress hormone – and dopamine and serotonin – of happiness. For Lydia Viñuela Viejopsychologist specialized in behavior analysis, thus conceiving mental health is “set aside.” “The sociocultural context of the person, the learning he has had, his environment … Biology is just a variable, it is like saying that a car moves only by gasoline. The problem is not that you see the bank’s account and that the cortisol goes up – as Rojas Estepé said – is that you have no money for a situation of precariousness, ”he explains to this newspaper.
“When we talk about psychological problems, many times try to address from that medical part, recipeing antidepressants, for example, when neurochemical imbalance really is a consequence, it does not cause. The same with anxiolytics you sleep at night, but the problem will continue. And, in addition, if so, why are we going to need therapy? ”Adds Viñuela Viejo.
For Claudia Pradas, Health and disseminating psychologist, this approach to mental health is inherited from the prevailing biomedical model until the 70s, but surpassed with subsequent studies that highlight the importance of the sociocultural context, as World Health Organization already recognizes.
According to Pradas, there are different ways of exercising science and biomedicine: “When talking about dopamine, cortisol… refers to studies that are carried out in the laboratory, which are valid but little reliability: they measure exactly what they have to measure, but They cannot be applied out of the laboratory. And then there are others with population, with more variable and more uncontrollable, which makes them less valid but more useful, because we can extrapolate them to therapeutic processes. ”
The sociocultural context of the person is left out, the learning he has had, his surroundings … Biology is just a variable, it is like saying that a car moves only through gasoline
Lydia Viñuela Viejo
– Psychologist
This perspective places doctors and psychiatrists on the cusp of a hierarchy of power that can be limiting when offering more comprehensive solutions to psychological problems, as they often see in therapy. “Many times we have to demystify the traumas of childhood, of the chemistry of the brain … because they return to the passive individual. That happens a lot in psychosis and bipolarity: they are put a label and you can no longer do because they believe they have no control over their situation, when it is not so, ”explains Viñuela.
In addition, to say that a mental problem is due to chemical deregulation, it is easier to understand than if we address all the factors that influence, as psychologists explain.
Meritocracy of overcoming
Centering mental problems as a practically hormonal issue is also to deposit the entire weight of recovery in the person, something that for Luis Miguel Real, a psychologist specialized in addictions, is deeply individualistic and very in tune with the neoliberal system. “In the end, what is achieved with that is to blame the individual only from his situation: he learns that cortisol does not upload, up your dopamine, do meditation … When there is no scientific evidence that the behavior arises from any interaction of any hormone ”, He explains.
“And there are people who believe that empowers them, because they are told that they cannot change their context, that they have to adapt to it, but that is not true: you can vote, manifest yourself for the house, call the Labor Inspection … There are many things that can be done. Psychologists can solve some things, but also unions, lawyers … ”, adds Real.
In fact, the three experts consulted cannot stop seeing a certain class privilege in the recommendations of many coaches. “In the environment of self -help there are much of ‘people who have done themselves’ and not: they have come from well -off families. They do not start from the same exit boxes as the rest, ”continues Real, who also criticized and analyzed Marian Rojas’s statements on your Instagram account. “It is presented as science, but in reality it is a sweetened version of neoliberal thought disguised as neuroscience.”
It is presented as science, but in reality it is a sweetened version of neoliberal thought disguised as neuroscience
Luis Miguel Real
– Addiction specialized psychologist
In the case of Rojas Estepé, she is granddaughter and daughter of psychiatrists. His father is also the writer Enrique Rojas and his mother, notary and teacher. It has formed in places like Cambodia, New York, London or Mexico; and links it to Opus Dei. It is also estimated that your family’s real estate heritage has a value of 5.5 million euros.
“The problem I see here is not to disseminate so much in what works, as in what has worked for me. Of course, if your work like is milk! But it is not the same if you have accessed your work from a privileged position and your conditions are good, that if you are in precariousness or you cannot access the labor market, ” Viñuela explains, who also criticizes that the solution offered by the psychiatrist are activities that imply time or money, how to do sports or look for Hobbies “Having reinforcers throughout the day will have an impact on the mood, that is true, but again that does not solve the problem if you do not have money or time for it, they are very general statements that do not serve everyone and frustrate. What do I say to an autonomous that is from 9.00 to 9.00 working, that meditates and dance? It is lack of contact with reality. ”
Conceiving mental health problems as a meritocratic issue can generate a lot of frustration among all those who fail to get out of the situation in which they meet. “For example, Rafael Santandreu [psicólogo con varios libros de autoayuda] He says that depression is caused by you and that is very dangerous because he blames the person of not getting out of there, ”considers Pradas.
“I don’t think there is evil in such speeches, but his survival instinct is not that of other people. The same they have not had to get the chestnuts out of the fire and that must be kept in mind when it comes to disseminating, ”adds Pradas. “That is why his self -help speeches are that everything depends on your will.”
The big self -help business
According to GFK consultancy data published by the newspaper of SpainRojas Estepé was in 2023 the first author of non -fiction in sales volume. And also the second, since two of his books –How to make good things happen to you and Find your person vitamin (ESPASA)– They had sneaked into the podium of Best Self With more than half a million copies sold together, something “unheard of” in the sector.
But if science has already shown that only chemistry does not explain the mood, and focusing the problems in the individual can lead to frustration and take over, why then speeches such as Red de Rojas estepé are so successful? One of the reasons is the fallacy of authority that causes the use of technicalities (such as talking about cortisol, dopamine, oxytocin …) and another simplify reality with labels such as “vitamin people”, “toxic” or “Red Flags”, also extended in the dissemination of networks, where publications such as 7 signs that you have TDHA either How to recognize a narcissistic person.
Why speeches like Red Estandé are so successful? One of the reasons is the fallacy of authority that causes the use of technicalities (talking about cortisol, dopamine, oxytocin …) and another simplify reality with labels such as’ people vitamin ‘,’ toxic ‘or’ Red Flags
“The reality is not so simple as to be able to polarize it,” explains Viñuela. “Now all the ex are narcissists … see Flags Network Everywhere and that makes us relate more biases. In addition, it generates discomfort because we all want to be vitamin and nobody wants to be toxic, and it seems that if you verbalize one day that you are wrong or you get a edge, they will already cross out toxic. That makes us very vigilant of our behaviors, because there are no gray. ”
Telling people according to isolated behavior is not only reductionist but unfair for the people we interact with and the ties we build. “It is very impoverishing relationships: our partner, for example, will not always do what we want, that is not healthy, but will have their opinions. And that surely makes it more valuable in our life, ”he considers real.
“What happens is that these simplifications sell very well and self -help has a lot of marketing behind. In addition, when we are wrong we are much more vulnerable to this type of speeches: if someone tells me that I can only with everything, it is very cool, and it is less frustrating and simpler than recognizing the problems of your context, ”adds the psychologist, for Who lacks mental health professionals in public health is also key in the rise of these speeches. “A priori it is cheaper to buy you a book, but the reality is that there are people who throw years in the whirlwind of self -help, from a pseudotherapy to another, buying books, retreats … without having changed anything.”
For Pradas, individualism prevails in today’s society and the lack of support networks. “It is easier to buy a book that tells you how to make good things happen to you than generate community and popular power. In addition, going to therapy is longer and longer than reading a book, ”Pradas coincides. “That’s why I always tell my patients that they will have a good time in therapy and they will have a bad time, because it is not a cup of Mr. Wonderful.”
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