Strong speech by the President of the Assembly of the Republic took us to psychology. “The worst time of life seems to be between the ages of 20 and 30.”
“We have more words for what is wrong than for what is better.”
“We often prefer discuss more than dialogue. We prefer to answer than applaud, applauding instead of celebrating – and almost always in a dramatic way.”
Words by José Pedro Aguiar-Branco (while Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa, by his side, was always spying on the speech) in the solemn session of the .
The President of the Assembly, who looked like a psychologist, gave several examples of what he wanted to say.
We discuss advertising on RTP, but no one remembers the times when there wasn’t even freedom of the press.
We discussed the lack of investment in the public health service, but no one remembers who owned the National Health Service.
We discuss IRC, but the market economy and freedom of initiative are guaranteed.
Or we can discuss the colors of vaccination cards, but we have equal rights under the law.
Among others, Aguiar-Branco was suggesting a question: Why do we remember more the negative moments, the bad things?
A few years ago, he asked his readers what their most vivid memories were. Answers: “Sitting on the bathroom floor when my father died”, or “I was forced to do something I didn’t want to do”, or “When I was about to commit suicide”.
Many studies confirm that we remember negative experiences more easily.
Psychologist Laura Carstensen admits in the newspaper that there are evolutionary roots to this trend: “It is more important for people, for survival, to notice the lion in the bush, than the beautiful flower that grows across the street.” It’s a question of survival.
There is a positive aspect: we learn. What remains in the brain after difficult or dangerous situations can be used to apply this knowledge when the situation repeats itself, or another similar one appears.
Age is also a factor. In a sentence that may surprise: “On an emotional level, the worst time in life seems to be between your 20s and 30s.”.
And yes, it is the youngest people who remember bad times the most. THENegative emotions are a “youth skill”.
“We think that what happens at this age is that younger people, because they have a long and hazy futurethey really need to collect a lot of information. And, therefore, they remember many things that possibly will help manage this future”, explains the psychologist.
Then we get older and are better able to live in the present – “And so, focusing on positive information makes the present pleasurable”.
Simply put: older people live better in the moment and enjoy what is around them more.
Without forgetting that, just like tastes or routines, our memories are in change and constant evolution.
And without forgetting that memories are fallible. Long-term memories “are almost always wrong.”
Nuno Teixeira da Silva, ZAP //
