What if our desperate need for certainty, predictability, and control is not making us safer but actually making us psychologically ill? In this episode of Poets & Thinkers, we explore the hidden pathology of modern life with João Sevilhano, a psychologist, business consultant, and philosopher whose work challenges the fundamental assumptions of how we organize society, education, and business. From his home in Lisbon during his summer break, João brings two decades of experience working at the intersection of psychology and corporate culture to reveal the deep contradictions in our pursuit of certainty.
João takes us on a journey from ancient Greek concepts of human development to the modern “bullshit economy” that rewards empty performance over substance. Drawing from his background as both a clinical psychologist who worked in psychiatric hospitals and a business consultant who helps organizations navigate change, he reveals how our educational systems, corporate structures, and even personal relationships have become organized around the illusion of control rather than the cultivation of wisdom. Through the lens of psychoanalysis and contemporary philosophy, João demonstrates how our inability to tolerate uncertainty is creating a society-wide pathology that distances us from our humanity.
In our conversation, João challenges us to reconsider everything from how we raise children to how we structure organizations, arguing that our obsession with metrics, productivity, and predictable outcomes is creating “emotional bureaucrats” who have internalized corporate logic into their most intimate experiences. His vision for healing this syndrome involves embracing what he calls “useful uselessness” and rediscovering the ancient balance between suffering and growth that makes us fully human.
In this thought-provoking discussion, we explore:
- Why psychopathology is proportional to our need for certainty and control
- How modern education systems prepare us for performance rather than wisdom
- The shift from ancient Greek paideia to modern workforce preparation
- Why we’ve created a “bullshit economy” where empty words have market value
- How technology externalizes internal conflicts and stunts psychological development
- The concept of "emotional bureaucrats" and the bureaucratization of intimacy
- Why AI could either liberate us or deepen our disconnection from ourselves
This episode is an invitation to examine the hidden costs of our certainty-obsessed culture and to consider what it might mean to build organizations and societies that honor the full complexity of human experience.
Resources Mentioned
The Certainty Syndrome essay by João Sevilhano
The Bullshit Economy essay by João Sevilhano
Post Depth essay by João Sevilhano
Byung-Chul Han’s philosophical works on modern burnout culture
The Permanent Crisis book on the decline of humanities education
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