2023-07-01 05:37:30
Nathan DeWall considers himself, by definition, a happy man. He is a psychologist and a scientist, and for several years he has traveled the world teaching others how to be happy too. One of those countries is Colombia, where he was invited by the University of Sinú to work with young victims of the conflict and forced displacement.
He has listened to their stories and has given them tools to move away from re-victimization and find happiness and hope, despite everything.
It is that DeWall is part of a relatively new area, which was born within the walls of Harvard University: positive psychology. It was precisely regarding this that he spoke in SEMANA.
SEMANA: What is positive psychology or the so-called science of happiness?
Nathan Dewall: It’s regarding understanding how we can see the growth of each other and how we can improve it with this science. Until very recently, science focused on illnesses, depression, anxiety, schizophrenia, but 20 years ago that changed and positive psychology was created. And that’s when psychologists and scientists began to study happiness. Before, it was the hippies, in the United States, who began to talk regarding peace and love. But now science is the one in charge of the study of happiness and peace.
SEMANA: How do you define happiness?
ND: It consists of comparing the current life with the desired life. And look at the differences. For unhappy people there will always be a big gap between the life they want and the one they have. And happiness does not depend, contrary to what many people think, on the money you have or where you live. It is regarding minimizing that gap between the life you want and the one you have been able to achieve.
SEMANA: Many wonder if happiness is moments or is it a permanent sensation…
ND: Both. Psychologists call it personal happiness and happiness of actions. It has more to do with the personality of each person. Some are born happier with others. When I talk to my dad regarding how he was as a kid, he tells me that no matter what was going on, he was always happy. But happiness can be improved precisely through positive psychology, which also helps reduce violence and aggression.
SEMANA: Did the concept of happiness change anything following the pandemic?
ND: Research on happiness continues to be written. And what we’re seeing is that people initially handled the pandemic well. In the first months, people did whatever it took to be happy. Many invented activities, new routines. They remembered friends to call them. After that phase, the fatigue of confinement and the fear of death began, and happiness declined. But we followed up on that and realized that human beings are resilient, we still recover from the most unexpected, deadly and unknown situations such as the pandemic. That is the immune system of psychology, which helps to resist situations like war, trauma. It is the same as the biological immune system.
SEMANA: In Colombia we have heard for years that we are one of the happiest countries in the world. For a person who scientifically studies happiness, how relevant are those measurements?
ND: One of the things I’ve seen studying the science of happiness here is that Colombians perceive their country as a place of hope, a place for the future. And that is happiness. I was at the marches in the Plaza de Bolívar (the ones on June 20) and I spoke with some people. I asked them: what is happening here? And what I saw is that people take to the streets because they want a better country. The only ones who do that are those who truly believe they can make a change and that is an indicator of happiness. It is not that we all agree, that we all think alike. There are places where they force everyone to think in the same way, who might not take to the streets as they can here.
SEMANA: How can we understand then that if we are a happy country we have been recycling violence for 60 years?
ND: It is one of the reasons why I am here. I wanted to understand why people solve problems with violence. People who don’t even know each other. It is a great mystery and that is why we want to study the psychology of happiness with the psychology of aggression. And not only understand the reason for anger, but give tools to people who have been victims of violence so that they can be happy despite everything; learn to be grateful with what you have. When one is grateful, he learns to be happy.
WEEK: The key is to be grateful then…
ND: Exactly. For this reason, in countries like the United States we have a day dedicated exclusively to that: Thanksgiving.
SEMANA: But how did you end up in Colombia and make it a ‘case study’?
ND: A colleague wrote to me two months ago and told me that he had been working in Colombia for several years and invited me to participate in his research group to help millions of Colombians. We are teaching the students of the University of Sinú regarding the science of happiness and peace, not only from an academic point of view, but so that they can apply it to their daily lives. And this population is special, because 29 percent of them have post-traumatic stress, which is very high, due to exposure to war and forced displacement.
SEMANA: Have you worked with victimizers as well?
ND: I have worked more with them than with victims. Many people become violent and aggressive, even though they think they are not. In the United States, many aggressive episodes occur between the hours of 10:00 pm and 2:00 am, when people are tired and have no mental energy to block their aggressive impulses. Then, what often motivates the violent is impulsiveness. People imagine that an aggressive person is a serial killer or someone who plans their violence a lot, but what moves millions of violent people is impulsiveness. Of course, we are not talking regarding psychopaths, but regarding people who end up in violence without a compelling reason. Many wars started like this.
SEMANA: Despite everything, happiness has detractors, people who underestimate it…
ND: That’s fascinating. And I get it because it’s a new science. Many dismiss happiness because they believe that things in life cannot change to have more well-being. But when people try to live a happier life, regardless of the method we scientists use, they improve many aspects of their lives, they are more fulfilled, they are healthier, they achieve their goals, they educate their families better. And that is scientifically proven!
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