The origin or foundation of something can be named as a cause: "The doctor told me that the cause of my respiratory problems is cigarettes."
The most common use of the notion of cause comes from the Latin causa (which, in turn, originates from a Greek word) and indicates what is considered the foundation or origin of something .
It can be said that A is the cause of B if the occurrence of A appears accompanied by the occurrence of B, while the non-occurrence of B implies that the occurrence of A cannot be found either. If A is the cause of B, B is an effect of A .
For example: if a man is hit in the face and has a black eye, the blow is the cause of the injury. Likewise, if a storm knocks down a tree, the first is the cause of the fall of the second. In this context, the causes are usually easy to define; However, when emotions come into play, the search becomes much more complicated.
Psychoanalysis and the search for causes
It is popular knowledge that through psychoanalysis it is possible to find the causes of our problems to begin to solve them; But not everything is as simple as finding that blow to the face, or that storm that ended the life of the tree. Many times, the most obvious answers to the mind's questions are not enough, since they lead us to new questions, and so on.
The brain has a way of operating that even today has not been 100% understood by scientists; When we try to delve into our past , two things may happen: memories are presented in a distorted way, both positively and negatively; that a certain number of experiences have remained outside the reach of our memory . How can we find the causes of trauma if we are not able to clearly and faithfully observe the events of our own lives?
To overcome the blockage that these walls represent, the first step is to find the causes why our mind has built them; In other words, the journey towards the origins of our problems involves, in most cases, taking a few steps back, to understand why we do not know them.
In Peruvian gastronomy, the cause is a mashed potato with lemon and chili that is served cold.
The term as a reason to act and as a judicial dispute
The cause can also be the reason or motive for acting . In this case, it is about what drives you to act: “Che Guevara joined the socialist cause when he met Fidel Castro in Mexico,” “When he was a teenager and active in politics, he was capable of giving everything for the cause.” . Fighting for a cause requires perseverance, absolute dedication, without fear of the consequences; When victory is achieved, the satisfaction seems insurmountable, while a defeat should only prompt us to get up and keep trying.
Cause can also be litigation or legal action : “The singer initiated a case against the journalist for slander and insults,” “Romero faced several cases in recent years and ended up in ruin.”
Movie "Rebel Without a Cause"
The legendary actor James Dean was the protagonist of a film titled " Rebel Without a Cause ", filmed in 1955 under the direction of Nicholas Ray ; It is currently among the works preserved by the National Film Registry of North America.
Curiously, despite being an adaptation of the psychiatric essay of the same name published a decade earlier by Robert Lindner (the original book had the subtitle " The Hypnoanalysis of a Criminal Psychopath "), there is no reference to it during the film.
The concept in Peruvian gastronomy
It is interesting to note that another etymological origin of causa takes us to the Quechua causay ( "sustenance of life" ).
In Peru , the cause is a mashed potato with chili and lemon that is served cold as an appetizer . The dish is usually accompanied by olives and lettuce.