The Earth we live in is increasingly becoming a battlefield for the forces of integration versus the forces of fragmentation. The play between opposites has encumbered our world as it has our family lives as well.
Psychologists, counselors,management gurus have all been working hard to find solutions to a growing‘relationships’ crisis, at both the macro and micro levels. In the developed countries, mental illnesses are on the rise. Growing intolerance has begun to seek release through violence. The trends are disturbing, and there is a growing need for change. What we need now more than ever, perhaps, is a completely new perspective.
The need for change must be fulfilled at the individual personal level first instead of always resorting to institutional or structural changes in society. Institutional interventions and strategies would eventually be required that target both individuals as well as institutions. But perhaps, these need to grow from within.
This paper seeks to explore the possibilities of creating a more integrated individual in the family, in the community, in the socio-political scenario of the world. The underlying belief being that we must start at the level of the individual and his/her search for increasingly realistic expectations leading to greater meaningfulness. This search can then be made apart of an organizational or community structure and process.Differences exist in all forms and measures. They are necessary for our growth and learning. The question is how do we deal with them? How do they affect our psyche? Can we bring about a radical change in the way we deal with them? Let us briefly look at the psychological impact of some of these differences. Their impact on our minds. Their impact on our lives.According to the early psychoanalysts such as Melanie Klein, W.R.D. Fairbairn and others,the early development of children began with a process called ‘splitting’,where external objects needed to be split into ‘good’ and ‘bad’ objects,resulting in a process of simultaneous internal splitting of the child’s ego and psyche This simply meant that at the very outset the child learns to differentiate between ‘good’ and ‘bad’, and in so doing, develops a defense mechanism called ‘splitting’ to protect it from all that is viewed and so believed to be bad.
This process was seen to continue through childhood and adolescence, enabling the child to develop from a ‘paranoid-schizoid position’ to a ‘depressive position’, through the process of integrating the good parts with the bad. This would in turn lead towards developing a more holistic and realistic inner representation of the external world, where both good and bad can at least coexist in every ‘object’.
About the Author.
Dr. Jimmy Mody, Psychologist, Transpersonal Regression Therapist
www.jimmymody.com
