Prof. Dr. Nevzat Tarhan: “An underdeveloped human body targets physical satisfaction, a developed human targets mental satisfaction”

Üsküdar University Founding Rector Psychiatrist Prof. Dr. Nevzat Tarhan participated in the Social Mentor Online Talk event. Emphasizing that it is most important for young people to be able to pursue high ideals and meanings, Tarhan said; “An underdeveloped human body targets physical satisfaction, a developed human targets mental satisfaction. People who pursue meaning are interested in high values. Therefore, when we do these things, if you ask, ‘What is the most important thing in my life?’ you activate the hidden treasure within you.”

“There is a mental jury in the frontal lobe of our brain”

Üsküdar University Founding Rector Psychiatrist Prof. Dr. Nevzat Tarhan met with young people at the program organized by Gelişim University Career Guidance Center. 

Tarhan, emphasizing that the half-life of information has dropped to one year; “We live in an era where the half-life of information used to be 30 years, now it has dropped to 3 years, even 1 year. Within a year, within 6 months, information becomes obsolete. In such a situation, there is an information bombardment. Previously, intelligence services used to hire special personnel to access information; now, due to the information bombardment, they are trying to reach accurate information. So much information is coming in that they have trained analysts. An analyst for this topic, an analyst for that topic – they are trying to access information and select the right information. In such an information bombardment, it has become even more difficult for a person to make the right decision, asking, ‘Which information is correct?’ Especially when we consider the younger generations, accessing correct information has become much more important. The frontal region of our brain has a feature: after all the information coming from outside and our perceptions related to the five senses coming from inside, the frontal region of the brain makes decisions, saying 'appropriate-not appropriate,' 'valid-not valid,' 'safe-not safe,' 'healthy-not healthy.' In fact, there is a mental jury in the frontal region of our brain. This mental jury has a judge, a president. Then it has four members: a scientist, an aesthetician, a businessman, and a moralist. We can make such an analogy for our brain.” he said. 

“Whoever manages digital data will rule the world”

Tarhan emphasized that currently, we are not the subjects but the objects of the digital world; “The information age ended in the 21st century. What's in Industry 4.0? There's artificial intelligence, big data, autonomous robots, and 3D printers. All of these will now rule the world that possesses significant digital data. Whoever manages digital data will rule the world. In fact, a decision was made in Davos in 2018, one of the secret decisions: 'The new god of the earth is artificial intelligence,' they say. A global capital is making such a plan to take the world towards digital dictatorship through artificial intelligence. Then the pandemic broke out, and the whole plan was disrupted. During the pandemic, the whole world had to digitize, and their monopoly was broken. In fact, the digitization during the pandemic, perhaps we wouldn't have used it if there hadn't been a pandemic. We wouldn't have seen its ease. Most underdeveloped countries wouldn't have been able to use digital platforms. Currently, we are unfortunately not the subjects but the objects of the digital world, but hopefully, young people will do some things here. Ultimately, we live in a digital age, and because we live in a digital age, the technology of the digital world is neutral. Whatever purpose you use it for, it serves that purpose. The best mentoring system is to be able to use mentoring from virtual environments.” he said.

“Meaning was reduced to pleasure, addiction increased”

Prof. Dr. Nevzat Tarhan, pointing out that addiction has increased significantly as a result of meaning being reduced to pleasure; “There is a syndrome called California syndrome. This syndrome has four symptoms; the first symptom is hedonism. It makes pursuing pleasure the purpose of life. An American works five days, enjoys two days. He says, 'What I like is good, what I don't like is bad.' It reduced meaning to pleasure, and as a result, addiction increased greatly. Because it idealizes the pursuit of pleasure, the current modernist system refers to addiction as 'reward deficiency syndrome' in the brain. In addiction, the brain is not satisfied with rewards. It wants more, and the reward-punishment system in the brain is disrupted. The person becomes addicted to substances while seeking more rewards. Secondly, egocentrism emerges; the person thinks of their own interest. For example, when their spouse is sick, they say, 'I only came to this world once, if I can't live as I want, why should I continue the marriage?' and ends their marriage. Marriage is not about self-interest. The purpose of marriage is to be together in good times and bad. Modernism destroyed marital maturity. Thirdly, loneliness emerges. The biggest problem of the modern world right now is loneliness. The fourth symptom of California syndrome is unhappiness. Unhappiness also leads to depression after a while. We are heading towards a world full of rich but unhappy people. Our welfare level is increasing, we are getting richer, but we are not happy. Humanity is heading this way. The solution lies in the treasure on Anatolia, the solution is here. We need to implement it.” he stated.

“The Western world bought and implements Eastern wisdom”

Tarhan, emphasizing that there is a suicide epidemic; “There is a joint loneliness study conducted by Manchester City University and the BBC in England. In the loneliness study, among over 50,000 people, the rate of those aged 75 and over who say 'I am very lonely' is 27 percent. The real shocking picture is among those aged 16-24, where the loneliness rate is 40 percent. They are shocked. This is a study done in 2018. It increased even more after Covid. Suicide is very common among young people. There is a suicide epidemic. For this, they introduced positive psychology courses. What is taught in these courses? They took Rumi, systematized him, and presented him to us as a new branch of science. It's good that they did it; it's our laziness. I was very disturbed when I realized this. I then had to write the books Masnavi Therapy, Yunus Therapy, and Love Therapy, saying these are the sources of this knowledge. Americans created a branch of science by referencing Rumi as their own source without citation. The Western world bought and implements Eastern wisdom. At least we should take it from them and apply it. We, as Üsküdar University, introduced positive psychology as a course in 2013. Harvard introduced it in 2015. Yale introduced it in 2019. It was introduced as a solution to the suicide epidemic. It is also referred to as the science of happiness. It's called the science of goodness, the science of happiness. We also hold its congress. We have made it traditional. They are actually looking for this as a remedy for loneliness.” he said. 

“A developed human targets mental satisfaction”

Prof. Dr. Nevzat Tarhan addressed the issue that modernism always offers temporary meanings. Tarhan; “Modernism offers us meanings such as sexuality, owning property, and fame to pursue meaning. Modernism always offers us temporary meanings. Currently, modernism does not teach us a meaning like, 'What kind of person do you want to be when you reach the end of life, how do you want to be remembered, what kind of mark do you want to leave, what have you done for the society you live in, what have you done for humanity, what do you want to be written on your tombstone?' The moment we pursue this purpose and meaning, the dangers of modernism become trivial, it cannot do anything. Therefore, the most important thing is for young people to be able to pursue high ideals and meanings. Let's do this, and rest assured, the youth who push it away will emerge this way. An underdeveloped human body targets physical satisfaction, a developed human targets mental satisfaction. What is an underdeveloped human? Physical satisfaction is eating, drinking, reproducing, having fun, owning property, holding a position, but a developed human targets mental satisfaction. Mental satisfaction is being interested in abstract ideas, abstract subjects, existence, meaning, music, art, and literature. People who pursue meaning are interested in high values. Therefore, when we do these things, if you ask, ‘What is the most important thing in my life?’ you activate the hidden treasure within us.” he said.

“Wrongdoings and evils are part of the good and the perfect”

Tarhan, pointing out that the pain, troubles, and difficulties experienced in life are actually part of growth; “The decision-making mechanism in the frontal lobe of our brain is currently the most interesting topic in psychology science: how do we make decisions and what is consciousness? Here, in consciousness, there is free will. Alvin Plantinga says; 'God is omnipotent, omniscient, and a purely good being. His proposition does not logically mean that God does not create things that can do evil. It is not to produce such a result,' he says, because for freedom to be tested, there must also be the possibility of doing what is wrong. For example, angels are not free. They don't have the freedom to do wrong; they always do good and right. For it to be called freedom, there must also be the possibility of doing what is wrong. 'An individual always doing what is right should not stem from not being able to do what is wrong. If a person always doing what is right is like angels, it should not stem from not being able to do what is wrong,' he says. If so, it would be a spiritual being, but humans have been left free to do both right and wrong. In that case, that person will choose wrong but will not have the power of sanction. Life is a choice. One will choose, and then God will transform it into action with His knowledge and power. Monotheistic belief already states this. We only choose. We choose good-bad, right-wrong, useful-useless, and then new creations occur according to our will each time. For this reason, even in evil, and even in quantum physics, a meteorologist made a weather forecast on a computer in the 60s. While making the forecast, he took a break for tea one day. He didn't save the calculations and probabilities he made. When he came back, he saw that his whole program was messed up. He says, 'Oh dear, I'd better continue from where I left off.' And he sees that better possibilities have emerged. Upon this, he says, 'Mistakes are part of perfection,' and chaos theory emerges. Quantum physicists take this and call it the 'butterfly effect.' Therefore, wrongdoings and evils are part of the good and the perfect. The pains, troubles, and difficulties we experience in life are actually part of growth. Let us all seek challenges, progress, overcome those difficulties, and experience the pleasure of it. These become our resilience training.” he stated.