For João and Mariluz

In the movie “A Man Called Otto”, at his funeral he asks for a simple burial, one that matters to those who think Otto “pull my weight”, was useful in his life. (The film is A Man Called Otto. In a bad translation, it received the title of “The Worst Neighbor in the World” in Brazil).

For me personally, a moving film.

As I've been researching oxytocin and dopamine molecules recently, through the lens of oxytocin and dopamine, I would say the film is moving with its oxytocinergic moments, in a world often more dopaminergic than oxytocinergic.

I'll have to explain this last paragraph before I can move on to more conclusions.

The film has beautiful “oxytocinergic” moments. Moments that make us go “Ohhh!”, or “Awe”, in English.

Nature is a great source of “Ohhh”, but there's an even more potent source of “Ohhh”: human nature. More specifically, those YouTube videos that show people in “heroic” acts (there are countless, of all types: with more or less action, infinite).

Otto moves us with his beautiful heroic acts. At 43 minutes, the first dinner with Sonya. The love between Otto and Sonya is oxytocinergic, especially after the initial phase of infatuation which is usually dopaminergic.

Love is oxytocinergic.

A father taking care of a child with “oxytocinergic” patience - because he could be doing a thousand other things: making money, meeting women, drinking, gambling, but no. Someone helping an old lady also stops everything, for nothing, except for the oxytocinergia of the moment. (Etc).

How was Otto useful? For whom, and how, did he “pull his weight” in his life?

Now I can move on to a further analysis.

Otto was useful to people in a more oxytocinergic way. Oxytocinergia happens more easily through proximity. Knowing the people you help by name.

It would be more “dopaminergic” to create laws or things that solve problems for “all the people in the world” (beautiful too), but oxytocinergia usually requires solving the little problem of João, Mariluz, Abreu. (And more: helping without being exploited, because oxytocin also detects when Abreu didn't really need help, he was just comfortable, but that's another topic. “The Moral Molecule" explains).

“Dopamine: The Molecule of Desire” argues that oxytocin is the molecule of immediate satisfaction, and that dopamine never delivers the satisfaction it always promises.

The film “A Man Called Otto” permanently criticizes today's world, compared to the world of the time when Otto was younger.

From the perspective of molecules, I get the impression that the film sees dopaminergic relationships advancing over oxytocinergic relationships in today's world, while there would have been less incentive for dopaminergic relationships and more incentives for oxytocinergic relationships when Otto was younger.

But this view of mine has two major potential flaws: firstly, it may just be a projection of how I see the world, or want to see it; and, secondly, it may also be that only Otto's old age doesn't conform to new things, but for the young people of each era, everything would be fine and normal.

So there's only a small crack left for this thesis of mine to connect with reality and be a good thesis.

I'll have to assume the thesis is true from here. Even if the chances of it being correct are low. For sport, let's assume my thesis is reasonably correct from here.

(If my thesis is correct) Otto had oxytocinergic relationships through very personal connections. In his work, with his neighbors, his love for Sonya, even with the cat.

Now I'll add a human need: in general we need to work to be in society, at least for a good part of adult life.

While working was opening a bakery where the neighbors knew you by name, working was quite oxytocinergic.

Look around your street. In your neighborhood. You might know the “Joãos” and “Mariluzes” who help you with bread, vegetables, printing something, having a coffee. They might also know you.

Unless it's a “McDonald's”, or a “Walmart”, or another huge chain. In this case, the most you'll know is the manager, the employee, who may or may not be from the neighborhood. The service may be less oxytocinergic, with the employee having to follow protocols or there being high turnover if the job is unpleasant.

But it gets worse: if you live in one of the megacities - London, Tokyo, São Paulo - it's possible that to live on the ground that seems like “hot lava” (alluding to the children's game “the floor is lava”, where no one can step on the ground) everyone needs to work on “great causes” with huge salaries. After all, to live near the big glass towers you need to earn very well and, since money is just a measure of work done, “big jobs” are needed for big money.

These “great jobs”, here is my argument, are more dopaminergic and, therefore, less or almost not at all oxytocinergic. “Dopamine: The Molecule of Desire” shows that dopamine scares away oxytocin, and vice versa, which is why it's difficult to have both flowing together, always.

Was Otto right, then, to complain about people becoming more dopaminergic in his old age?

For example: in the movie, instead of saving an old man who falls on a train track, the vast majority of people film the fallen man.

The Anxious Generation shows that wanting likes and being glued to social media is highly dopaminergic. Addictive. When people film the fallen man, they comment “look, a fallen man”, already anticipating how many views they will receive in the future, by displaying the footage on their social media. They were in dopaminergic mode, guided by dopamine. In opposition to the extremely oxytocinergic act of saving an old man on the tracks, before the train arrives.

Now let's move on to the more practical conclusions, which I love to have, despite the great abstraction that precedes them.

The world may indeed be pushing us towards more dopaminergic relationships.

If this is true, more oxytocinergic relationships will be simultaneously pushed away, because dopamine and oxytocin are more opposing molecules than friendly ones.

Thus, instead of training our children to help our neighborhood - our tribe - for example with local or not-too-distant commerce, we may be pushed to train our children for complex abstractions that can save the world, with grand jobs, in the areas of finance, physics, chemistry, saving less the Joãos and Mariluzes whom we (still) know by name, and more “all humans”, “an entire country”.

Very much like dopamine. Very much what scares away oxytocin.

This is one of my first posts about oxytocin, dopamine, and the job market, our lives.

I know I have some more important things to conclude. But I need to write in parts. And sleep. Let the ideas settle. Feel.

Thank you “João and Mariluz” for the patience in still reading texts that aren't meant to be scrolled down in a short instant, with just one finger.