Those of us who were not born in the digital age should consider ourselves lucky

Gabriel Ferrater He said that the highest form of literature was poetry, but that literature does not rest on its peaks. I have always believed that the basis of all literature is the essay and the ability to think about ourselves, which is what literature is based on. One of the essays that has recently been most successful when it comes to making a portrait of what we are today is Without story, by the writer and psychoanalyst Lola López Mondéjar (1958). Forget about the techniques of mindfulness and immerse yourself in the exciting exercise of looking at yourself in the mirror of reality.

Obviously, when Without story The author speaks of "the jivarization of narrative ability," not referring to the inability to write a real or fictional story. The Department of Education of the Generalitat of Catalonia is already in charge of ensuring this, He intended to make the subject of literature optional.. López Mondéjar refers to the growing inability to narrate oneself: "The human subject needs to order his time in a narrative sequence, because the brain is a specialist in searching for meaning, but the new capitalism generates precarious, fragile forms of work, which give rise to fragmented, corroded and illegible identities."

This very well-deserved last Anagrama Essay Prize, which bears the subtitle "Atrophy of narrative capacity and crisis of subjectivity", delves deeply into the condition of the contemporary individual, especially of those born in the digital age. Spoiler: let us feel lucky those of us who were not born in the digital age. "Multitasking and constant interruptions to which we are subjected by the incessant stimuli we read, a fact that affects both the depth of our arguments and the quality of our democracies."

An erosion of empathy and solidarity

This individual, who we are and can be called postmodern, is certainly at a critical moment. What we interpret from the outside as individualism, alienation and a brutal lack of empathy, is the result of an explosive cocktail presided over by the inability to fix our experience and much less to inscribe it in a collective story. In this neoliberal system, in which information overwhelms us -Berardi said-, we have become a recipient of stimuli that affects our physical and mental health. "This overflow has pathological effects for individuals subjected to this information regime, who see their capacity to feel and interpret the non-verbal signs of suffering and pleasure of others transformed, which translates into an erosion of empathy and solidarity." Because the mutation of the environment in which social learning takes place leads us to deny otherness and establish an instrumental relationship with others.

Faced with the transformation imposed by digital technology, López Mondéjar speaks of a profound anthropological mutation, as he did in the short essay Invulnerable and invertebrates, also published by Anagrama. The only thing missing were social networks, which are determined to create digital bubbles - the so-called echo chambers - and are intended to confirm our beliefs. Without story It has the theoretical support of thinkers such as Ricoeur, Anders and Richard Sennett, and also with the author's daily experience with her patients. After reading it, it's time to ration the screens and rebel against the fragility to which we are condemned.