What is the strange “Bitter Syndrome” and what fundamental role do social networks play?

The relationship and dependence on interaction on social networks generates new pathologies, especially in the aspects related to dependence on this way of interacting. And also to the reactions they provoke.

In this sense, the “Amaro syndrome” is one of the most recognizable deviations in human behavior today, although very few know what it is.

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What is Amaro Syndrome?

The concept of Amaro syndrome has been around for years, but little has been discussed and explored about it. The term was introduced by the Spanish professor and psychiatrist Enrique Rojas Montes, who established it as a phenomenon of human behavior related to failure’s fixation on the private lives of celebrities.

“Amaro syndrome consists of the unhealthy tendency to distract a broken private life, and with many deficiencies, consuming the sentimental failure of celebrities“, Rojas Montes called in an interview with ABC media in 2004.

For the Spanish specialist, the main feature of this phenomenon is that people, knowingly or unknowingly, want to know that the lives of celebrities are adrift, falling apart.

The misfortune of others, in this sense, is a substantial food for the self-satisfaction of consumers of this type of news.

Above all, the private life of celebrities placed at the center of the news, with its clarifications, nuances, antecedents and consequences, causes a greed in consumers which is not easy to stop and which produces, according to Rojas Montes, a drug-like addiction.

Currently, with social networks playing a vital role in information consumption, the concept of Amaro syndrome is quite widespread. For Enrique Rojas Montes, moreover, this phenomenon is more terrible for several reasons.

“It’s a bitter longing to know that a famous person’s life is cut short because it heals the life wounds of consumers of that kind of information. The louder the celebrity fall, the better. This problem reflects a very sick part of society,” explained Rojas Montes in an interview conducted by journalist Magdalena Ossandón.

Origin of the name bitter syndrome

One of the possible origins of this pathology is the bitter silver grass which grows in dry places, has an unpleasant smell and is used in ointments to heal skin lesions. Here’s an analogy: It’s a nauseous plant with healing properties, like, second the aforementioned psychiatrist theory, people’s obsession with the lives of celebrities to soothe their wounds.

Breakups That Feed Amaro Syndrome

Among the love breaks between celebrities, the most sensational that, without a doubt, have fueled those who suffer from Bitter Syndrome are those of Jennifer Aniston and Brad Pitt. The end of the relationship between Antonio Banderas and Melanie Griffith also has a prominent place, which, despite the separation, continues to be an exemplary couple.

And also that of Shakira with Gerard Piqué, for the resonances and declarations both on social networks and through songs.