Inner Light
Few thoughts…
Dr. Sigmund Freud who introduced Psychoanalysis as a sub-discipline of Psychology breaks the idea of treating mental illness under the Physiological discipline. Until Freudian intervention in Psychology, brain was treated as a Physiological organ and believed that mental illness can be cured by methods such as shock treatments.
If you are interested in Freudian discipline of Psychology, I highly recommend watching Freud on Netflix.
There is a famous scene in the series where Freud compares mind to a dark house with so many rooms and a little light called the “consciousness”. I could simply direct you to this short video but I would love to quote the concept here in my blog.
I am a house. It is dark in me. My consciousness is a lonely light. A candle in the wind. It’s flickering. Sometimes here, sometimes there. Everything else is in the shade. Everything else is in the unconscious. But they are there. The other rooms. Niches, hallways, staircases and doors. At any time. And anything that lives within you and wanders within you… It is there. It Works and lives. Within the house is me. Instinct, eros and taboos. Forbidden thoughts. Forbidden desires. Memories we don’t want to see in the light. That we displaced from the light. They dance around us in the darkness. They torment and poke us. They haunt and whisper. They scare us. They make us sick. They make us hysteric.
Please park that thought for a bit…
Couple of months back, I read a Tamil book written by Sundara Ramasamy named “J.J: Sila Kurippugal” (translation: “J.J: Some Jottings”). The story begins with an announcement of the death of a fictional Malayali writer Joseph James. The narrator of the story, a fictional character named Balu talks about his close-to-heart writer J.J as follows:
Is J.J a Tamil writer? Some of you might wonder how would J.J’s death be a loss to us. Though J.J’s life is Dravidian, it is true that his life doesn’t belong to Tamil. Yet, he is a writer. Someone who took up writing to see his “Inner Light”. Isn’t this very important? Rare, is it not?
Likewise, whoever took up Writing, or Art, or Philosophy, or Science, or Religion (how could I include Politics to the list in these times?) to see his “Inner Light”, belong to us. He must immediately be adopted to our language and he must be made an organ of our body.
I have always considered reading and writing as a spiritual experience. Spiritual as in, a tool to uncover who I really am.
In Eleven Minutes written by Paulo Coelho, Ralf Hart, the Painter says to Maria, the Prostitute that he saw her “Inner Light” despite knowing she is a Prostitute.
Some more coincidence.. When I started learning about Freud and Psychology and “Inner Light” this year, I suddenly noticed a place called “Ulloli - The Psychological Rendezvous” - a Psychotherapy practice center in the area where I live. Again, Ulloli in Tamil means “Inner Light” and probably that is why it caught my attention.
Now circling back to the previous quote from “Freud” series, why does Freud say everything about who we really are lie in the dark part of our mind, the “unconscious”? Doesn’t it contradict how other writers/philosophers (at least Sundara Ramasamy and Paulo Coelho as I quoted) think it is important to see our bright part?
Perhaps both Freud and the rest of the folks mean the same. Perhaps the light of the flickering candle in the wind is what is going to guide us to the dark rooms in our house called “unconscious”. But the dark area within each of us is unimaginably boundless. And that is why Physical Science hasn’t yet accepted Psychology as Science though Medical Science has accepted it.
What are your thoughts?
