MENTAL HEALTH AND EDUCATION: PERSONAL EXPERT OPINION
by Prof. Joaquim Quintino-Aires, Founder and Director of the Vygotsky Institute (Portugal)
Prof. Joaquim Quintino-Aires is a Doctor in Psycholinguistics with graduation on Clinical Psychology. Professor of Psychotherapy and Neuropsychology in Lisbon and São Paulo, and Clinical Psychologist and Neuropsychologist, he worked at the Military Hospital of Lisbon (Department of Neurology and Neurosurgery) and currently at the Institute Vygotsky. He wrote seven books, published in several countries, and dozens of chapters and scientific articles. He held conferences, seminars and short courses in more than 40 countries. There are about twenty years he works weekly on television, on topics related to psychology and healthy human development.
“After the industrial revolution the humans entered a new era in many different areas, and also with the novelty Health versus mental illness. Greater historical-cultural complexity has greatly increased the brain structure, but also clearly marked the possibility that this appreciated new brain and mental structure could be or not present.
The historical path has brought to the human a percentage reduction in its dependence on genetics and a complementary increase in the need for education. In the twentieth century, education is not only learning to read, write and count, but rather an opportunity for structuring about 75% of the brain.
That is, what is necessary for citizenship and autonomous and integrated action in contemporary society. Education and Mental Health are no longer separate themes; but both sides of the same coin, in the process of building free humans and responsible collaborators in the society of all. This is because the need to bring together these different professionals in the same debate.”
