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Who writes

Miguel Díaz Zamacona is a psychologist specialising in negotiation, mediation and conflict resolution, and the author of «Arquitectura de la Manipulación» and «La Mente Revelada». He has led a European technology company for almost thirty years. He writes VIDHA alone, with no advertising and nothing to sell.

He came to psychology the long way round: decades leading technology companies, deciding with people and money at stake, watching people at the moments when judgement fails. In parallel he trained in neuroscience, behaviour, high-performance psychology and strategy programmes at Harvard, Stanford, MIT and Cambridge.

«La Mente Revelada» was born from an episode that changed everything: during his psychology studies he went through a long series of eye operations and a month completely blind. «Arquitectura de la Manipulación» is the result of years studying how emotional control is built — and how one gets out of it.

VIDHA gathers his psychoeducation guides: what is happening to a person, why, what they can do, and on what evidence. In Spanish, English and Chinese. The full biography, in his words.

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Free for press use with the credit «Photo: courtesy of VIDHA».

The site in figures

• 44guides
• 4languages
• 34sourced citations
• 7free courses
• 484automatic tests

Figures read from the system when this page loads. The other guarantees, each with its figure, in how it’s made.

Guides with citable data

• The thought you didn't choose93.6% of people across 13 countries report intrusive thoughts.
• You wake at four and remember you're going to dieDeath anxiety as a transdiagnostic process.
• You know they need help, and they won't goMeta-analysis of the CRAFT method versus confrontation.
• They shut the door and I don't know if it's normalIn children and adolescents, low mood can present as irritability.
• When work is draining youAn occupational phenomenon; not classified as a disorder. · Interventions on conditions versus interventions on the person.
• Nobody says how they diedOwn risk and reduced social support after bereavement by suicide.
• It went well, and all you see is what didn'tRandomised trials of CBT for perfectionism. · Three decades of rising perfectionism.
• There was no funeral, and someone is still missingClose to three in ten with post-traumatic symptoms at one month. · The concept of disenfranchised grief.
• It isn't a midlife crisis. It's that it doesn't look like what you expectedThe original U-curve: well-being falls towards midlife and then rises. · The U is not so robust: studies following the same people give mixed results. · The U has vanished because young people's mental health has worsened. · In southern Europe the curve has reversed since 2015. · The young overestimate their future and the old underestimate it: the gap with expectations.
• Over the years, what you didn't do weighs moreIn the short term actions weigh more; in the long term, omissions. · The pattern replicates in three of four tests, with smaller effects than the originals. · What wasn't done stays psychologically open; what was done is closed by the facts. · The biggest regrets concentrate where people see the most opportunity for change.
• You didn't fall out. You just stopped talkingHow it ends changes the damage: conflict leaves anger; fading leaves doubt. · Half of close friends change in about seven years, and the network keeps its size. · Regularity of contact is what holds a bond at its tier.
• One day they'll realise I know nothingIts authors called it a phenomenon, not a syndrome; it is not in DSM-5 or ICD-11. · Reported prevalence runs from 9% to 82%: there is no agreed way to measure it. · Sometimes the doubt isn't born inside: legitimacy is questioned from outside.
• You're not sad. Nothing gets throughLearning works better from punishment than from reward: anhedonia alters reinforcement learning. · After behavioural activation, activation increases in the reward regions. · Behavioural activation was not superior to mindfulness: both reduced symptoms.
• It isn't that you're worth little. It's that you're keeping scoreSelf-esteem and self-compassion as two different ways of relating to oneself. · The adverse effect of positive self-statements is not settled: it did not replicate. · Self-esteem follows a life curve, peaking around sixty. · The CBT model specific to low self-esteem.
• You are not a disaster with moneyScarcity consumes cognitive capacity: the equivalent of a night without sleep.

How to cite

Díaz Zamacona, M. (2026). [Guide title]. VIDHA. https://www.vidha.eu/en/guides/[slug]. Each guide lists at the end the studies it draws on, with author, year and journal.

The book

All the guides in one free book that is not for sale. It may be cited, printed and distributed with attribution.

Contact

Interviews, quotes, data, corrections: through the contact form. Everything is read and answered.