Cogito Ergo Sum

Unlike most posts, this is not going to start with “I”. This post is about an extra-ordinary experience I had at a place called ICTA-Santigram, Kochin, Kerala. Stated in a language understandable by a layman, this institute has something to do with psychology. I have had passion for human psychology ever since I was a child. (It is evident in my earlier posts as well). The reason must be that I’ve grown up in an undivided family. The advantage with such family is, one gets to study various types of personalities, due to its sheer size. At one time we were 13 in our home. I was there till I crossed 15, before I moved to Mangalore for my 11^th standard. Human mind is very intricate, it has always amazed me and I was searching for a chance to learn about it more in the limited time I have, and at the same time without getting too much carried away by the vastness of the subject.

“Institute for Counseling and Transactional Analysis (ICTA)-Santigram”, was founded in 1973 by Fr.George Kandathil and group and is a charitable institute. I came to know about it recently through my friend Shwethakumari, Mangalore, who is a counselor. The only thing she told me was that this institute takes a different view of psychology, that which is known as Bernean approach, not the usual Freudian approach. This Eric Berne had started his own theory and I thought let me give it a try. Also, I had read a book by name “Road less traveled” by Dr.Scott Peck several years ago and liked the concepts. This was a good chance to check whether his views match that of Eric Berne’s. This Jan, I had been to ICTA, as a participant of 36^th National Conference on Transactional Analysis (NCTA). The conference was from Jan 22 to 26^th. Every year it is the same date, place may be Kochi or Pune. Fee was very less, 2,250 Rs for the conference and 150 Rs per day for the accommodation, both are much less than what they deserve.

The theme of the conference was “Relating – Gateway to Autonomy”. Fr.Kandathil-Accha in short-gave an inaugural speech on this. Accha is personification of spirituality. Being 88 years old, he has dementia to his credit. But he still remembers lot of Transactional Analysis (TA) related stuff. This is a gist of what he said: “When a person is mentally ill, she/he tends to be (over) dependent on others, in other words, loses autonomy. How to bring back the autonomy? The solution lies in relating to the surroundings. A person’s identity comes from his relations, like a child is first identified with respect to its mother and then father etc. It is parents’ responsibility to make a child grow and provide its identity. With the growth comes autonomy. Autonomy does not mean total independence. It is independence with interdependence. We all need relatives, friends, teachers, and acquaintances to live happily.”

I was planning to put down the contents of my notes here. But as my priorities have changed now, I am not able to make time for it. Moreover, these things need to be experienced first hand. If you just read the proceedings of the conference, it’ll sound like another personality management course. I recommend you to go through their website and attend one of their courses, mainly the TA workshops in future.

About 90 people had attended the conference and for me the amusing part was, some of them-those who were familiar with these methods-were studying me. Not just me, they were studying everyone’s every move and making observations and analyzing them. I received interesting comments!! My belief that people see their mirror image in me got confirmed, as different people were giving different opinions. I did not risk giving my opinions to anyone. Yes, it is a risk, because by revealing my opinion about others, by law of mirror images, I’ll be actually revealing my inner self.

The new place:

It’s been two weeks since I joined RVCE EC Department. Sorry friends, I cannot write anything here, other than facts. I am handling one theory subject, namely Analog Communication for 4^th semester and a few lab sessions for 4^th and 6^th semesters. The college is about 15kms from my home and I commute by college bus. I see the clock at 7:50am on Monday and then only at 3pm on Saturday. In between, I am not aware what is happening. It is as though I am in trance. Sunday just flies. I have no other comments on anything; wait, that does not mean I have nothing good to say. This blog might be watched by my students. It’s already found by one of my students as per my knowledge. Do not know how many more are reading it. These undergrads are like kids. Trust me, they are all good at heart.

Quotes for February 2009:

-Someone said I was irrational and I accepted, because I was not rational enough to disprove it.

Date: 20/02/09

-A person without self-love can not love anyone else. Same thing applies to respect and trust as well.

Date: 22/02/09

-The one without conscience lacks rationality, but may not be vice versa. (For example, children are irrational, but they are the most conscientious people)

Date: 22/02/09

-I am another name for contradictions,

I hate contradictions,

I love myself.

Date: 28/02/09

# posted by Aparna @ 8:27 PM