Decoding the Meaning of Life — Vol. 1

Nothing is a matter of chance, and everything that happens to us on earth can be illuminated in light of our psycho-emotional experience (and that of our ancestors). Trained in various approaches and nourished by all these influences, the Belgian writer Bernard Tihon had already explored the "why" of pathologies in his trilogy "Le sens des maux" [The Meaning of Ills]. This time, after re-reading the work of Laborit, he has taken up his pen again to offer, on a larger scale, "Decoding the Meaning of Life," an essay in two parts.

• Why must we spend nine months in our mother's womb?
• Why are there right-handed and left-handed people?
• Why are there men and women?
• Why did my parents name me this?
• What is the role of a father?
• What is the role of a mother?
• What connects me to my family tree?
• Is the human being naturally monogamous or polygamous?
• Why do we have a godfather and a godmother?
• What does it mean to be an only child, or the eldest of siblings, or the middle child or the youngest? What is the meaning of childhood and adolescence?
• Why is breastfeeding a survival necessity?
• What are the conflicts specific to adolescents?
• Is the logic of survival not in opposition to the necessity of dying?
• What link is there between artistic activity and health?
• Why is everything automated in time cycles?
• What does the young child learn during the anal stage?
• What is the meaning of our food cravings?
• Is it possible to love getting older by finding meaning in it?
• What differentiates Man from animal?
• Why do we place so much importance on the family?
• What information is given to us by numbers?
• How is speech a vital human need?
• What is the meaning of suicide?
• Why do humans live in houses or apartments?
• What is the meaning of each of the twelve months of the year?
• What is the difference between conscious thought and the unconscious brain?
• What exactly happens during the conception of a human being? What is the symbolic meaning of birth?
• Why do some adolescents succeed better in their studies than others?
• Can one be happy while having a lot of work and no love, or a lot of love and no work?
• What is the benefit of being a little depressive?
• Why can't I manage to make money like everyone else?
• For or against same-sex marriage?
• In today's multicultural society, what meaning does "fraternity," the third theme of the French national motto, have?
• How can one be ecological towards others and towards oneself?
• Why are we all obsessed with time?
• What is the exact place of free will in a human's life?
• How to become an expert in conflict resolution?
• Is it better to attack or to flee?
• Is fatherhood/motherhood an obligatory passage for an adult living being?
• Why do we get sick?
• What is homeostasis and why is it important?
• Why are there fat and thin people?
• What are the fictions that govern our lives?
• How can we make our projects come true?