Biography Festival in Nîmes: for Boris Cyrulnik, “logic is not always rational”

Le psychiatre Boris Cyrulnik à la fac de Nîmes.

Au festival de la biographie à Nîmes, une conférence du psychiatre Boris Cyrulnik dans le grand amphi de la fac Vauban, devant un public nombreux et passionné.

It was in front of a crowded Vauban university amphitheater (and populated by fans) that psychiatrist Boris Cyrulnik gave a conference this Saturday. The author of the recent "Forty thieves in emotional deprivation" charms the audience with his talent as a conveyor, handling scientific concepts while always remaining accessible.

Known for his work on resilience, Boris Cyrulnik titled his presentation "The Plowman and the Wind Eaters". The latter are "those who are delusional. You don’need to be crazy to be delusional and you have often voted for them", jokes the doctor.

"When we move away from sensible reality to submit to the representation we have of reality", starts the danger. "There are logical delusions and logic is not always rational", recalls the scientist who worked with Romanian children, separated from their parents by Ceaucescu. The totalitarian organization was perfectly logical and perfectly irrational, crushing individuals.

Cut off from social interactions, the child is neurologically damaged. From the appearance "an emotional substitute, resilience is possible." And medical imaging does confirms, the beneficial effects are immediate. "The brain is sculpted by maternal words. From three or four months, when we talk to the baby, the sound zone becomes the word zone."