Víctor Sánchez presents us with the book 'La llamada del Jaguar'

How do we perceive reality in our day to day? Do we limit ourselves to obtaining information from it, or do we also participate in its formation and transformation? And beyond having a purely intellectual knowledge about what happens... To what extent is it important to make sense of it, to make it have a relevant meaning for us?

These are questions with which the science of psychology has been based practically since its inception, and The different ways of positioning on this issue have given rise to various perspectives. psychotherapeutic.

When it comes to understanding how we relate to reality, it is useful to look at what has been happening historically when we have wondered about the nature of what surrounds us. Part of this wisdom has been embodied in knowledge prior to the existence of the sciences as they are. we know today, and currently, there are many psychologists who look back at this ancestral way of creating ideas. In part, this is what inspires the book the call of the jaguar, whose author, Víctor Sánchez, we interviewed today.

• Related article: "Existential crisis: when we do not find meaning in our lives"

'The Call of the Jaguar', an autobiographical novel

Víctor Sánchez presents us with the book 'La Llamada del Jaguar'.

What idea is it that led you to write "The Call of the Jaguar"?

In my psychotherapeutic work with my clients I have used the resource of therapeutic writing a lot. I realized that there was a profile of patients who usually come to my office and in which the therapeutic results are very noticeable. They are mostly men from the so-called millennial generation who are quite lost, lacking roots and a strong purpose for their lives.

Through therapeutic writing, the person can better understand those unconscious forces that usually influence our vital decisions. By acknowledging our own origin we can better clarify what direction to take in life.

To write this novel I based myself on my own trip to the Amazon jungle, made at a time in my life when I was desperately looking for a meaning for my existence. There I came into contact with Amazonian medicine and thanks to the master plants I was able to recognize the root of my personal conflicts.

That journey into the depths of my being took the form of an autobiographical novel. Much of the characters and events narrated here are real, but they have been written from a new perspective that transforms the reality that occurred.

Is the way in which you understand the psychotherapy processes reflected in the novel?

Clear. The essential process of psychotherapy. Beyond the various techniques that you can use, it is based on building a safe and healthy bonding space that motivates the client to grow and trust in their own personal resources.

Resignifying the past is the essential content that we work on in the sessions. This consists of approaching our past from a new perspective that helps us solve those stories that were left pending. Usually we consider ourselves victims of our past, but we are not usually aware of the creative power we have when narrating what happens to us from certain perspectives. That is to say, that depending on how we narrate our own story, that is how we will be living it.

Psychological science has long shown that there is no objective external reality independent of the observer's subjective interpretation. The consequence of this is that we have incredible power if we interpret reality in a way that is favorable to our interests, or at least in a way that does not cause us so much suffering.

On what main ideas is your novel based? How do you think it can help people, in any aspect of their psychological well-being?

The novel follows the structure of the hero's journey, which deals with the universal myth of human fulfillment. All the epic movies (Lord of the Rings, Star Wars, Matrix) follow the structure of this monomyth.

The stages of this journey include giving new meaning to our biography: forgiving our parents, rescuing our inner child, understanding our internal masculine and feminine model. In this way we take responsibility for our history and stop victimizing ourselves.

The following cover is to illuminate and embrace our shadow, which are those aspects that we have repressed or relegated to the unconscious for threatening the self-concept or the identity we have of ourselves...

The main character becomes the hero after facing his own shadows and integrating the unconscious forces that govern the personality. If I could summarize it in a single sentence, the reader will find in this novel an effective method of self-knowledge and personal growth.

Beyond the book, how could you summarize the method you use in psychotherapy, and how does it relate to your philosophy of life?

It is difficult for me to define myself within a specific school or method of psychology. My basic training was cognitive-behavioral but later I did a master's degree in systemic family psychotherapy and later specialized in Transpersonal Psychotherapy.

For me, the essential thing is to have a complete and non-reductionist vision of the human being that includes all the potential we have to unfold it in our lives. The work of the psychotherapist, beyond the various techniques that he may use, is based on build a safe and healthy bonding space that motivates the client to grow and trust in their own resources.

Throughout your training career, you completed a doctoral thesis in the field of mental health and psychotropic drugs, a topic that is not usually addressed as much by psychologists as it is by psychiatrists and the medical community in general. Before them, psychoactive substances have been used for thousands of years in activities linked to the mystical. What do you think the current way of using psychotropic drugs says about our society?

When I finished my psychology degree, I did my internship at a Psychiatric Institute in Barcelona quite renowned and there I realized that reducing the person to a series of symptoms was not enough. I have spent ten years researching and training from different perspectives to obtain the most complete knowledge of the human being possible.

I emigrated to Latin America, and there I was lucky to meet an international reference center in the treatment and research of Amazonian traditional medicine.

As you say, it has been shown that master or visionary plants have been the fundamental axis on which the mysticism of all religions has been articulated. In a world like today, devoid of rituals and cultural forms that give meaning to our lives, people easily fall into addiction to drugs or psychotropic drugs.

In my doctoral thesis, I investigated the dangers of addiction to psychotropic drugs, specifically the anxiolytics called benzodiazepines. When these are prescribed without a psychotherapy process, people become accustomed within the system of health to solve their ailments with pills, without inquiring into the true cause of their discomfort. In addition to producing addiction to these substances, the person acquires a passive role that prevents them from empowering themselves and resolving the conflicts present in their lives.

Finally... Is your novel already available? Through which channels can it be purchased?

It has just been published in the world's largest book store: Amazon.