By Raúl Allain
The importance of human adaptation in times of crisis is a must. It is therefore urgent that the state and society in general, develop “emotional education” as a fundamental requirement for personal and social equilibrium.
As a social anthropologist, I am concerned with analysing the need and relevance of emotional education for people, from infancy, childhood and adolescence, with the aim of forging their character and personality, as well as cementing ethical and human values, reinforcing resilience or the capacity to face adverse situations.
The struggle for survival and personal fulfilment are activities inherent to every human being, for which, from birth, they have to forge their personality, character, skills and abilities to face social and working life.
At present, Peruvian society is not focusing adequately on the formation of the person, due to the fact that the formal education system gives more relevance to the learning of “knowledge”, “sciences” and “techniques”, to the detriment of emotional learning.
Health is not only the absence of illness, but is a state of holistic well-being that also includes psychological, emotional and social stability.
Most of the so-called “social problems” are the result of traumatic situations within the family, which then lead to psychological trauma, social maladjustment, which then develop into more serious problems such as gangs, addiction to drugs, alcohol and video games (compulsive gambling), behavioural problems, delinquency, organised crime, femicide, corruption of officials.
In order to be sustainable and prevent personal and social problems, it is necessary that the Peruvian state and society as a whole are concerned with developing strategies for the formation of people’s “emotional intelligence”, so that individuals develop “resilience”, i.e., adaptation to adverse or frustrating situations. Only in this way will it be possible to have psychologically stable citizens who contribute positively to personal, family and social development.
Since prehistoric times, society has made demands on individuals in their daily struggle for existence. If the struggle for survival in a hostile environment, in the face of the forces of nature, was the driving force behind human existence, today human beings continue to struggle with the need to survive in an increasingly competitive environment. Achieving the basic needs of food, shelter, clothing, education and training, as well as the need to “be somebody” in life, remain.
However, modern life today is marked by the rise of new technologies, the internet, the speed of communications and the phenomenon of globalisation, the impact of social networks on daily life and now with the coronavirus pandemic that is causing more than five million deaths in the world, generating a permanent state of stress, anxiety and depression, as well as adaptation to the “new normal” and the norms of distance and the use of masks. The negative impact on the economy can be seen in unemployment, low profitability, social crisis, increased crime.
These factors affect the psyche of individuals. As in prehistoric times, those who survive are those who have the best qualities. And we are not only referring to “education”, “academic training”, “professional qualifications”, but also to a fundamental component: personality development and what psychologists call “resilience”, i.e., adaptation to adverse and frustrating situations.
In everyday life we often see cases of people who have had excellent grades at school, as evidenced by passing grades in traditional subjects, diplomas of excellence, but who then have had difficulties in their personal and family life. There are also many cases of young people who graduate from universities with very good grades, but who have failed in their personal lives.
What happened? Are good grades synonymous with success in life? And we are not referring to economic success, because there are also cases of professionals who have had serious difficulties in dealing with adverse situations, precisely because they did not have an emotional education. This means that “instruction”, school, technical and university education also requires a holistic approach to the human being.
(*) Writer, poet, editor and sociologist. President of the Peruvian Youth Institute (IPJ) and director of Editorial Río Negro.
- La edición en inglés de “Educación emocional: un enfoque antropológico” fue traducida por la Agencia Internacional de Prensa Pressenza.
