In 1964, Professor Luiz Machado, from Rio de Janeiro State University (UERJ), was invited to conduct studies and surveys at Columbia University, in New York, as a visiting scholar. There, he started to deepen his studies on intelligence and creativity, as, by then, he had already conceived the basis for his theory, in the psycholinguistics field, that the conceptual language comprises the whole human intelligence and creativity processes.

As his studies developed, it became necessary for the researcher to study the human brain, mainly from the standpoint of what we are able to accomplish with that organ which, in that case, he called the performance brain, the brain that does things, the healthy brain, as pathologies and therapies belong in the areas of medicine and/or psychology. Until then, the professor followed the scientific environment’s predominant trend of explaining mind and intellect phenomena solely based on Aristotelian logic. However, in his path of observation, identification, research and explanation of some categories of phenomena, he reached the structures more responsible for the emotions, which are comprised by the limbic system expression. “The term limbic system derives from the concept of a limbic lobe presented by French anatomist Broca, in 1878. The word limbic refers to the border, fringe or hem. Broca used the term limbic lobe to designate the brain tissue that surrounds the brain stem and that lies brain beneath the neocortical mantle”, as Robert L. Isaacson explains, in his book “The Limbic System”, Plenum Press. Prof. Machado verified, based on neuroscientists studies and survey that such structures are directly involved in the intelligence, creativity and behavior processes. Later on he found support in the work of another Brazilian, Dr. Marino Júnior: “Only a few decades ago we came to the conclusion that only the limbic system could fulfill all the requirements – that of mental processes neural substratum - from emotions, intellect, motivation, learning, memory, behavior and many other cerebral functions of the highest level, which present an essential link between mind and body”. (In the book “Physiology of Emotions”, Sarvier, São Paulo).

Scientists are not unanimous regarding the structures comprising the limbic system, but there is consensus regarding hypothalamus, hippocampus, amygdale, and septum area. “The justification for such grouping is based on the fact that the hypothalamus has strong interconnections with all the other regions”, as Robert Isaacson says in the above mentioned work. And that was the reason Prof. Luiz Machado called this structure the “the brain of the brain”, in his book “The Brain of the Brain”.

For approximately 20 years – the period between his stay at Columbia University and the presentation of Etomology, for the first time on the planet, in a conference in Stockholm, Sweden, Prof. Luiz Machado participated in many conferences, to present scientific contributions developed in the language laboratories of the Rio de Janeiro State University (UERJ), in which he led the Intelligence and Creativity Development Special Program (PEDIC), having as the main objective the development of teaching systems to create the conditions for students to learn better and faster.

In 1984, in a conference, in Stockholm, Sweden, Prof. Luiz Machado presented his peers with a thesis that intelligence is more dependent of the limbic system that it is of the intellect, because, until then, the scientific community admitted that intelligence was explained solely by the intellect. This conclusion was presented only in 1984, after working with more than 20,000 students in the above mentioned language labs, in language courses by an accelerating learning system.

The thesis considered intelligence as a function of the organisms for, the preservation of the species and established the syllogism: since the limbic system is the most responsible for the preservation of the species and intelligence is a function of the organisms with this objective, the structures which comprise it are the most responsible for intelligence.

The limbic system works in close connection with the organism’s chemical factory, especially the endocrine glandular system. The studies on the limbic system ended up producing a virtual revolution for understanding brain processes: new inter-cerebral factors were discovered and they seem not only to control the pituitary gland and the endocrine system functions, but also the very brain activity.

Having identified the limbic system working in close connection with the endocrine glandular system, as the most responsible set for the preservation of the species, and the implications hence derived, Prof. Luiz Machado coined, since 1964, the acronym SAPE with the first letter of each word for “sistema de autopreservação e preservação da espécie” in Portuguese (Species Self-preservation and Preservation System). Only the information that penetrates those brain structures are capable of provoking behavior changes and adaptative behaviors represent acts of intelligence. Many training programs for behavior changes start from behaviors, but, according to the professor’s theory, it is necessary to penetrate the structures of the limbic system to generate behavior change.

Systems exist to achieve results. So, Professor Luiz Machado developed the following reasoning: if SAPE exists to achieve Nature’s major objective, i.e. preserving species, if we make our objectives common to the SAPE, in such a way that it interprets them as being what has to be achieved, in the same category of those from Nature, it will use all the energy to achieve our objectives, as it does to guarantee the preservation of the species, through the individual’s preservation.

Then the research developed to when Homo sapiens still used conceptual language. His/her communication, either from the individual with his/her SAPE, or among group members, was made through images, symbols, as attested, for example, the paintings made by the cavemen, because they fixed objectives mainly those for hunting, which represent feeding, survival, on the cavern walls and ceiling. Evidently, there was no artistic concern in such cases. Instead the intention was to fix the mental images of the intended outcomes. The conceptual language comes after the mental images. In the evolution process, Nature discards nothing. Though, today, human beings use the word-based language, only mental images penetrate the SAPE. But not all mental images get there; it is necessary that they mobilize energy and this only occurs if they are capable to set in action the chemical factory which is the organism. And Prof. Luiz Machado felt the need of a verb for such; so he created to emotize (from e(x), “out”; motus, “movement” and the suffix–ize, which indicates a “long action”, as it forms frequentative verbs, those of repeated actions.

For 20 years, the Brazilian researcher worked on tests and proofs of his observations, and only after all this time he considered he could present to the scientific world the body of systematized knowledge based on neurosciences and quantum physics, which acquired through observation, identification, research and explanation of given phenomena and facts, are methodically and rationally formulated to promote human potentialities as elements of self-actualization. To this set of knowledge he gave the name emotology, a hybrid word formed from Latin e(x) “out”, motus, “movement” and Greek lógos, “treaty”, “description”. Emotology came to fill in a gap in the knowledge universe. Until then, there was no knowledge systematization that could be considered human being’s real science. The sciences closer to such condition, like medicine and psychology, for example, are devoted to pathologies, therapies, belong to the health realm. Psycholinguistics, a branch of linguistics that deals with psychological processes involved in conceptual language, also does not aim at studying and applying knowledge to promote the development of human potentialities as an element of self-actualization.