Psychology:
Each person would like to be blessed with the fullness of life. It means to lead a meaningful and purposeful life. At times what is needed is finetuning a person and accompanying him/her as long as needed. The novel Jonathan Livingston Seagull by Rich Bach (1970) is an allegorical fable about a seagull who is trying to learn about flying, instead of being stay put at the sea-shore doing nothing, and eventually, is able to fly farther and farther, faster and faster, and higher and higher through personal reflection, freedom, and self-realization assisted by a friendly mentor Sullivan. Psychology is needed to open up the inner mine of power and grace, when there is maladjustments in the life-flow as well as life-environment. And it is knowing a person, accepting the person, understanding and loving the person, and accompanying him/her for the better.
Today’s Trend:
Today the maladjusted or mis-judged people are categorized as people with psychological issues or with mental illness. This mental health disorder affects one’s mood, thinking, and behavior, when one is affected more by depression, anxiety disorders, schizophrenia, eating disorders, additive behaviors etc, sometimes leading to extreme action of committing suicide.[1] It is estimated, as per World Mental Health Day 2022, that around 80% Indian workforce reports mental health issues. Further, the scale of mental disorders in India accounts for nearly 15% of the global mental health issue.[2] This might be, among other causes, due to
- unreasonable and undue expectation from life; and
- lack of resilience to accommodate challenges and difficulties in life.
One should know that disappointment is proportional to expectation. And in a life of stress and uncertainty, one needs to develop resilience in order to get accustomed to unexpected changes in life and life-situations. After all, as John Lennon would say, “Life is what happens when you’re busy making other plans”. As Viktor Frankl indicates in his book Man’s Search for Meaning (2004), one should know ‘why’ one should live and once this is clear and one is convinced of it, then one can easily find ‘how’ to live meaningfully for oneself and usefully for others. In this juncture, the conviction of the individual, supported by the accompanying assurance of others would help one go through life’s vistas with confidence and courage.
Need of the Hour:
It is said that one cannot hug oneself and one cannot cry on one’s own shoulder. We need people – Today we live with too many gadgets of communication, but there is very little personal communication. And we live amidst oceans of people, but most of the time each one feels and lives like an island. We have very little time for others – And hence we look for professionals to spend time with us. Most of the time the counselor would listen to you patiently and assuringly; and would help you find your direction to go forward – But you need the back up or follow up of people around you. We need people who would be ready to ‘waste’ their quality time with us. Today more than ever loneliness is eating away people and that might be the main cause of people feeling isolated, unwanted, unaccepted, unappreciated etc. We need people not just to solve our problems but to walk with us with understanding and acceptance. And if possible, to extend a helping hand through their suggestive guidance based on their personal experience or expertise. This is the need of the hour. Just like the famous line, “water, water everywhere but not a drop to drink”, in Samuel Taylor Coleridge poem, ‘The Rime of the ancient Mariner’, we are surrounded by people but often we do not find someone to carefront us, to comfort us, and to come along with us. We need people to support us with assurance that we would be fine and they would journey with us. When this is not there, we tend to buy time with the professional counselor or psychiatrists.
Human Psychology:
Humans are social beings – They were forced to stay together during the forager time in order to protect themselves from the wild animals and the inclemency of weather. Later when they started growing up in technology and started building towns and cities, they preferred to stay together for the common good and growth. But today in the age of industries with the disrupted life-rhythm and the assurance of scientific and medical advancements, people do not feel the need for being together to build up an emotional community. The more communication facilities, the more we drift apart from others. But our inner-make longs for being with others with meaningful and useful communication and realtionship. This dichotomy brings in confusion. In the search for professional accompaniment, we seem to lose track of life-giving relationship with others. The heart says, ‘be with people’, the technology tempts us to be mechanical. The result is psychological problem originating from being and feeling lonely.
Perspectives in Psychology:
Human psychology is the science of the mind and behavior as well as the application to explore and to address both typical and atypical behavior to understand the human experience fully and to help the needy through diagnosing and treating symptoms to bring in wellness of the individuals. At the first sight, psychology might seem as a vast and daunting area to comprehend and address; but understanding the basics would make one better prepared to explore ways that psychology could help improve one’s everyday life, health, and well-being.[3]
In this process, especially for the professionals, there are many a perspective depending on schools of thoughts and practice, such as psychodynamic, behavioral, cognitive, biological, cross-cultural, humanistic, ethical perspectives etc.[4] The desired fruit of all these multifaceted study and efforts should be individual, social, and universal unity and harmony. Each one should think, feel and become convinced that each one is unique and each one has come into the world to offer something only he/she could do. This sense of belonging and service would bring in a lot of good feeling and healthy behavior.
Paradigm Shift:
Very often paradigm shift is what could do the trick in feeling whole. The ultimate end effect is to create a connecting link between the conscious and sub-conscious mind in feeling that each one is great in his/her own rite and each one could contribute to the society in a unique manner. Bob Proctor, a Canadian self-help author, defines a paradigm as ‘a group of habits that are programmed in your subconscious mind that control your behavior.’ A paradigm is a road map based on what have happened in life to go forward along the road of meaning of life. Further, this sets a parameter to regulate our life to keep to the middle of the road, instead of wandering to the extremes.[5]
At the same time, we need to identify the obstructing paradigm and search for liberating paradigm and to create new identity for oneself along with new set of beliefs. And this needs to be confirmed with the help of experts or mentors. This might, at times, demand that one gets out of one’s comfort zone but it would also help one see new horizons as well. Thus, new paradigms not only could bring in the desired change but also would transform life.
Outcome of Paradigm Shift:
And this change, due to paradigm shift, has triple desired appreciation: Spiritual, Social, and Environmental. We need to feel and realize the origin of our lives and the propelling energy from our birth – It is, for the believers, God who journeys with us. For Ignatius of Loyola, the Founder of the Jesuits, God is at work in the created beings for each one of us. We are invited “to look how God dwells in creatures, in the elements, giving them being, in the plants vegetating, in the animals feeling in them, in men (and women) giving them to understand” (Cf Contemplation to gain love) and to accompany us through the ‘sill inner voice’ of our conscience. And socially, we are groomed through education and formation to see the good in others and at the same time we let the light of our good works shine for others. And finally, we see everything new in the universe. We could see the earth reflected on a droplet of water on the blade of a new leaf, if we have the imagination to observe. We could understand from a dry leaf that has fallen down that its life is not over but it would get anew as it becomes manure for the tree and would come out as fresh and new leaf in the following spring. Thus by changing our paradigm and living a life of give and take we could create a world of peace and joy. And we could even create a heaven – After all, heaven is the place where there is complete freedom to see the beauty and to appreciate the good in all.
Conclusion:
In this whole process, conscious mind and subconscious get integrated as thought and feeling become united emerging as the conscience. This conscience is the ‘small still voice’ within that guides us like the compass in the thick forest for an explorer; like the rudder of a boat in the sea for a sailor; and like the GPS in the sky for a pilot. The ultimate perspective of psychology is to keep working on love for the other, propelled by compassion for the welling being, especially those in need. Ignatius of Loyola says in The Spiritual Exercises: Love ought to manifest itself by deeds than by words. What we do for others should be the outcome of our love for their wellbeing. In this context, Fr Pedro Arrupe, the former Superior General of the Jesuits said: Fall in love, stay in love and it will decide everything.
I am happy that Loyola (Chennai) offers academic course in Psychology and I hope this would grow into training professional counselors to help the students in the first place. All the best for the conglomeration of experts and experienced psychologists and psychiatrists and also learning scholars. May the conference serve the purpose of knowing more and doing most.
Francis P Xavier SJ
28Mar2023
[1] https://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/mental-illness/symptoms-causes/syc-20374968
[2]https://www.google.com/search?sxsrf=AJOqlzVJog3Sh8d1_PYhBt3VhXL4RwcdGw:1679207508464&q=What+is+the+percentage+of+mental+health+in+2022%3F&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwjZ-a64r-f9AhU57zgGHZWfC2kQzmd6BAgiEAY&biw=1419&bih=693&dpr=1
[3] https://www.verywellmind.com/psychology-basics-4157186
[4] https://theprivatetherapyclinic.co.uk/blog/the-7-perspectives-in-modern-psychology/
[5] https://selfhelpforlife.com/change-a-paradigm/