The front cingular area receives the “suffering” pathways, and the area immediately behind it picks up information that produces euphoria. These feelings are opposite in their verbal presentation, but in anatomy the happiness and unhappiness pathways are neighbours.
“I didn´t realize how happy I was” said someone who had had an unfortunate incident. (…) A medium in which there was only happiness would lead us to experiment a feeling of emptiness, not happiness.”
Boris describes a study of a group of children who had everything. They had no problems or frustrations. Everything was ideal, everything except their future. As children and adults they showed a high index of depression and other problems at an emotional level and sense of being.
Apparently, the perfect childhood doesn´t exist…a relief for all of us, I must say!
Cyrulnik B. Body and soul. Neurons and emotions: the conquest of wellbeing. Gedisa, 2007.
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