On Animal Farm

Animal Farm

“All animals are equal, but some animals are more equal than others"

George Orwell to me is one of the best writers in English. The subtle horror he induces in the readers mind lingers long after the book is read. Animal farm still haunts me. Apart from noticing the obvious reference to The Russian Revolution there is something darker something more sinister in the treatment of the idea of power. Power is a heady drug the animals embrace the revolution readily but what awaits them is not a new world but a variation of the oppression they knew.

The other horrific idea Orwell leaves the reader with is of animal revolt.  In Orwell’s words

...I saw a little boy, perhaps ten years old, driving a huge carthorse along a narrow path, whipping it whenever it tried to turn. It struck me that if only such animals became aware of their strength we should have no power over them, and that men exploit animals in much the same way as the rich exploit the proletariat.

It’s this very idea that Orwell wants us to dwell on, how an animal rises against oppression and functions just as we do. Turning the power hierarchy upside down can be quite unnerving for the reader. It’s this very idea that makes Orwell stand out, the limit to which he pushes not just his own imagination but also the reader’s imagination. 

The audacity to challenge human power even if it is a work of fiction takes courage. Even though the animals falter we tend to sympathise with their condition because it is our condition as well, and we know it is inescapable.

This is the third element in the novel that horrifies the reader. Replacing one power structure does very little to liberate the animals so much so that in the end the humans and the pigs are indistinguishable. As Benjamin (the donkey) sums it up “Life will go on as it has always gone on — that is, badly.”

Animal farm demands the reader introspects. It deliberately horrifies and the reader and makes the reader ponder about the nature of power. 

Democratic Psychiatry

Democratic Psychiatry, sounds like an oxymoron of Foucauldian proportions but it isn't. Over the years I have heard the silence the mental health profession imposes on its users. It’s not the bad practitioners I am talking about but the good ones. They are probably the most lost here. They get accolades they don't breach ethical boundaries but they don't do any good either.

The practice of mental health requires a belief akin to the belief in God. As long as one believes they have found a way through they come out of the clinic feeling better. Those who question those assumptions, they fall by the wayside and their voices are never heard. Clients who question the practitioner are said to be resistant or worse still their curiosity worked into their symptomatology some unlucky ones get medicated.

As someone once said to me “ you don’t know what it is like to get diagnosed, you loose your sense of self, no matter what you do after that is looked as insane”.  

How many people will have to feel this way before we sit up and acknowledge the gaping holes in our mental health system? When will the client be able to speak and be heard?

Mental health must be looked at from the users perspectives their concerns however trivial must be taken into account. One must consider the damage a diagnosis can cause an individual. It may help some people but what about those who see the label as damaging?  

Practice must look at each individual within their own language rather than fitting the client into the language of psychiatry. How does this work? simple ask and the client will tell you. 

Children’s day – a day dedicated to make every child in the world feel special, loved and cared for. Sampurna Montfort College, in collaboration with Indian Catholic Youth Movement, endeavours to make this one day a special one for over 500 underprivileged children from various orphanages and children’s homes across Bangalore. Learning through fun - the day would include a fun fest, a good luncheon and workshops keeping in mind the theme of the International Year of Youth day – “Rise & Shine for a Better World”.


Date: 14 November 2010



Time: 9 am to 4 pm



Venue: Maria Nikethan Ground, Thomas Town,Bangalore



Join us in our attempt to spread happiness to these children. Could you sponsor a child or more, 150 per head being the expenses per child [food, games, and a memento]? Your donation will go a long way in making children feel special and loved on children’s day 2010.



Thank You for your generous spirit and the deep desire to rise and shine to make it a better world for our children.



With Warm Regards

The Boy in Stripped Pyjamas

The boy in stripped pyjamas.

Last evening as I was channel surfing I came across the movie the boy in stripped pyjamas. Now I wont argue the historical inaccuracies or how evil the Nazis were. What struck me were the boundaries that separated the characters in the movie. Here was a German family, the father the commandant of Auschwitz , the wife unaware of what her husband did, the daughter an admirer of the Nazi regime. It’s only the son, the protagonist in the movie who explores his boundaries.

The father is following orders to rid Germany of its Jewish menace and restore it to its glory. The family is unaware of the real horror of the concentration camp. When the wife comes to know she has a breakdown. It’s only the little boy who understands there is no difference between Jews and Germans.

Lets take this further. What is it that maintains the boundary of ‘the self’ and ‘the other’? Can dialogue exist between groups that think of themselves as different? The little boy didn’t think there were differences; he worked around the differences in this case by ignoring the wire fence and even digging under it- to help his friend.

The Nazi regime skilfully created the enemy- the Jew, and then went onto exterminate them. This of course was a large and political demonstration of hatred, yet boundaries exist even within those who claim to be secular. A distinction of ‘‘them’, rational irrational exists. Our boundaries prevent us from exploring beyond what we know. Those who accepted what the state told them were already in some way convinced that Nazisim was right and allowed the atrocities to be committed by not opposing the regime and also by not offering their opinions.  The two boys broke the rules they were friends. They didn’t understand their differences.

Unfortunately both the boys end up dying in the gas chambers. It’s a small but poignant scene both the boys hold hands as death approaches. The movie ends in silence because to say anything at a time like this would take away from the pain the characters feel. The other characters are never shown this happy or connected each on of them is disconnected from someone, family members or the reality of their situation.

Perhaps it is the alienation we feel not just from others but also from ourselves that touches us throughout the movie. The boy in the stripped pyjamas transcends that boundary. 

PRACTITIONER CERTIFICATE IN PSYCHOSOCIAL INTERVENTIONS

The Eric Miller Centre for Group Relations, Bangalore, India

&

The Tavistock Consultancy Service, Tavistock Clinic, UK

offers its first ever

PRACTITIONER CERTIFICATE

in

PSYCHOSOCIAL INTERVENTIONS

for

CONSULTING and CHANGE

24 September 2010 to mid-January 2011

in

JP Nagar, Bangalore

_____________________________________________________

We wish to recruit 10-12 post-graduate students in this program who will be absorbed in jobs with Sukrut and/or its affiliate companies from February 2011 on a consolidated monthly salary of Rs 16,000.00. These students may request for a personal loan to pay the entire or full course fee of Rs 30,000.00 for which they will be required to sign a training bond and/or a loan agreement. This loan will be recovered in 36 equal monthly instalments from March 2011 @ Rs 1000.00 per month from the monthly salary of each individual availing of the loan facility.

Please contact Ms Amrita Chatterjee on + 91 96633 31494 and amritac2007@yahoo.co.in for more details about this job-oriented course and a selection interview with the Programme Director.

Sukrut Human and Organization Consultants Private Ltd.

Sukrut Human and Organization Consultants Private Ltd. specializes in providing psychological services and facilitating the development of human potential.


Sukrut was started in 2008 by a group of unlike-minded professionals: a psychologist, a businessperson, a housewife, a social worker, and a gynecologist. Sukrut underwent a major expansion and relocation in 2009. Today Sukrut consists of over 25 psychologists.

Sukrut provides organizational training with eclectic theoretical groundings and a focus on generative learning. Our training courses are open to external organizations and individuals as well as being used to develop in-house staff.

Our organizational training programs have been successfully implemented in public- and private-sector organizations. Our training programs aim to generate awareness of the self, of others in the organisation, and of significant others in one’s life. The focus is on identifying one’s strengths as well as room for change, and targeting these areas by developing life competencies such as communication and interpersonal skills.

Sukrut’s Trainers have extensive experience in training and developing people in diverse organizational settings. Our Trainers represent a broad base of competencies and professional orientations.
Sukrut provides services in three major areas:
1) Educational Institutions
2) Corporate Sector
3) Therapeutic Service Wing.
In Educational Institutions

Sukrut‘s psychologists provide services in schools customized to different stakeholder needs:

1) Students: remedial training, life skills training, sensitivity training, study skills training and psychotherapist and behavior therapy.

2) Teachers: training in classroom management, behavioral performance management; teacher workshops.

3) Management: problem-focused solution-oriented intervention, leadership training programme.

We have 25 psychologists working full-time in schools serving students from a wide range of cultural, regional, and socioeconomic backgrounds.

Psychosocial Interventions in Schools

We advocate a systemic approach to diagnosing and intervening in problems usually identified as residing within the individual. We view the school system, the school, and its constituents as important parallel levels of analysis. We address behavioral and emotional issues identified in students with behavioral and cognitive-behavioral therapies (BT and CBT). Our goal is continuous positive development for the system and healthy adjustment and optimal functioning for the individual.

Life Skills Training (LST)

Our Life Skills Training modules are based on the WHO concept and were developed in an intensive long-term process. Sukrut has over 20 Life Skills Trainers catering to students of Stds. 6-10 from diverse socio-cultural backgrounds. Our modular approach is customizable to the needs and strengths of the individual student group. Our sessions are participative and activity-based. Group sharing and experiential learning are the cornerstones of LST.

Remedial Training In Schools (RTIS)

Sukrut provides Remedial Training on school premises to students identified as having academic difficulties, learning disorders, and hyperactivity. Our approach to Remedial Training incorporates behavioral and cognitive-behavioral methods. We provide training in cognitive skills as well as in the numerical and linguistic conceptual skills that provide the foundation for academic performance.

Remedial Training includes activities such as art therapy, writing exercises, worksheets, and games to develop and reinforce attention and concentration. Clients may choose to participate in exhibitions showcasing their talents, organized by Sukrut.
Training Programmes

GROUP RELATIONS CONFERENCE (GRC): The GRC provides a unique practical experience in group processes and dynamics as they operate within a formal organisation. Participants collude into a temporary organizational hierarchy and engage in both participative and third-person observation. Based on the Tavistock method of clinical observation, the GRC develops the skills of observation, analysis, and transformation critical to organizational development, as well as to the survival and success.

INWARD CHANGE CONFERENCE (ICC): The Inward Change Conference seeks to create self-awareness and self-development through an experiential, interactive process of facilitated group-sharing. Sharing occurs in both large and small groups. Participants are free to discuss issues or points of interest from their own experience. The group then generates hypotheses concerning the significance of the shared event to the individual's current level of functioning. The ICC can be an extremely cathartic experience; its aim is to facilitate identification and exploitation or room for change.
Practitioner Certification in Psychosocial Interventions for Consulting and Change (PC-PICC): Sukrut in conjunction with Tavistock Clinic, London, is commencing an intensive four-month course open to postgraduates from the field of psychology, social work and with experience working with people, leaders from the NGO & Corporate sector. This course aims to develop skills necessary in systemic diagnosis and change: such as conceptualizing organizational problems, facilitating understanding and functioning in organizational members, and skills for consultation and intervention. The theoretical foundations of the PICC approach are eclectic, ranging from psychodynamic to ecological. The course focuses on group learning and development.

Therapeutic Services

Sukrut adopts a holistic approach to psychotherapy, focusing on the social-ecological context within which problematic patterns of adjustment develop. Our team of psychotherapists is led by a practicing, experienced clinical and behavioral psychologist.

Our services have addressed clients of all age groups (from pediatric to geriatric) and with a range of difficulties (including generalized anxiety disorder, obsessive-compulsive disorder, autism spectrum disorders, nocturnal enuresis, and marital problems). Reflecting our contextual approach, our specialty is in marital and relationship counselling.

Our Psychotherapy facilities include a JPMR room, a play therapy room, and a library. Further, we believe in networking with and harnessing community resources, collaborating with various other healthcare providers to develop a holistic package for each client. As required, we integrate psychotherapy with medical treatment as well as alternative approaches such as yoga and dance therapy. A camp-based approach addresses special-needs groups such as women and children.

Our therapeutic paradigm leans towards behavior therapy (BT) and cognitive-behavior therapy (CBT) but is eclectic, incorporating empirically supported research and applications from diverse schools of thought.

We provide psychotherapy on our premises. Appointments on mutually convenient timings. In special cases we consider home visits. Telecounselling and counselling by email are also available.
Corporate Social Responsibility

At Sukrut, we firmly believe in giving back to the community. We have been involved in several charitable activities, some of which are mentioned below:

v Bosco Mane: Our therapists volunteered their time to provide dance therapy.

v Centre for Mentally Retarded Children: Our trainers have been providing behavior therapy to 93 institutionalized mentally retarded children and adults, including training in motor coordination, cognitive skills, and self-care.

 Bal Mandir Juvenile Home (Child Welfare Committee): Our therapist have been volunteering their time to a group of juvenile delinquents. We have been engaging these young people in Remedial Training and therapeutic activities.

For details contact: Shobha Managoli-09900874478 Email: shobhamanagoli@gmail.com

#855, 6th Main, Behind Ragi Gudda, J. P. Nagar, II Phase, Bangalore 560078

A day at work

Pictures taken at work

thoughts on Onam

Onam is probably one of the quietest and most secular Indian festival and every time I get to celebrate it I discover something new. I wont tell you the story of Onam you will find it anywhere on the net. What I like about Onam is how inclusive it is and how dignified the celebrations are. Men and women wear their traditional clothes, which are in lovely creamy shade of white lined with gold. Most Indian festivals are characterised by bright clothes and loud celebration Onam is quiet and people of all faiths are included in the celebration, which is getting rare in India. The boat races, graceful dances, and pookalams are inclusive. I recall some of the celebrations from years ago when I must have been around four and it still held the same magic the food wasn’t a big attraction then and most of the time I just ate banana chips. The white and gold sarees had something magical about them. Even today when I see women on onam I find it magical there is something about the simplicity of a white and gold saree that almost seems ethereal.

The baggage of being good

Ian Parker once spoke about how psychology students join the field bursting at the seams with good will and a desire to help humanity. If only it were so easy to help a world waiting for the benevolence of a mental health professional. If only it were so easy to clean up the world and rid society of every little distress.

Dr Parker isn’t a cynic, neither is he a misanthrope who was harmed by psychology he questioned the motives with which a lot of students (me included) take a course in psychology. Our motives to play the fairy godmother or agony aunt to a world waiting to relive its suffering can be quite naive and even misplaced. Dr Parker in Revolution in Psychology described the hopes and disappointments of a psychologist and their career path. Once the initial charm of helping people has worn out psychologists must look out for their own interests.

The discipline of psychology has been criticised on various theoretical and methodological and even ethical points yet these debates hardly touch those who choose to join the field who believe in the benevolence of everything they heard during their training. Helping someone isn’t necessarily a bad thing but what is distressing that most psychologists walk into the field like soldiers marching into battle amidst the fanfare. And like all soldiers fighting a war they realise the futility and see the ugliness of battle. Unlike soldiers who desert the army psychologists carry on still hoping for miracles. Helping people is good and perhaps primeval at some level, but this manufactured condition of artificial illness and cure is quite alarming.

To quote Dr parker once again “ The discipline is very adept at identifying particular abnormalities in individual behaviour, and psychological descriptions unfortunately chime all too well with commonsensical views of who is ‘mad’ and who is ‘bad’.” It is with these notions that each generation of psychologists expands the field. To put it mildly most of our observations can be inane and so obvious that they can be quite amusing at times. Except we feed the minds of millions and have fueled popular imagination of what it means to have a slight anxiety and how it can hamper your productivity. We see rather than hear our clients and paradoxically see our symptoms by listening to them looking for them earnestly. I can understand and sympathise with suffering what I cant agree with is disorder and definition.

In our bid to help we mystify disorder and create causes and supply elaborate explanations as to why people do what they do or feel the way they do. I just received this text and feel I must add it here to validate my point. –

Read carefully

Here’s a personality test. This was devised by a team of famous psychologists around the world.

Imagine you walked into a hut by the river in the jungle. You get in and find that there are 7 beds to your right, 7 chairs to your left and a small table in the middle. On the table there are 4 different fruits apples , bananas, strawberries and peaches which fruit will you choose?
Your choice reveals something about you!
Results
If you choose apples you like apples.
If you choose bananas you like bananas.
If you choose strawberries you like strawberries.
If you choose peaches you like peaches.

Need I say more?

who's afraid of Sigmund Freud?

Why isnt psychoanalysis so popular today?

This is a question I raised as a student so many years before and today a student asked me the same. Over the years I had lost touch with psychoanalysis and to keep up with the zeitgeist gone the cognitive behavioural way. Though I never truly could fully accept that every problem arose out of faulty beliefs and a cure was changing one’s beliefs. Somehow this to me this represented a kind of impassive indoctrinated complacency – don’t ask don’t fight be happy keep smiling. Conflict isn’t a necessarily bad thing so why did I have to magically and benignly make my clients problems vanish?
Someone said CBT represented a kind of dodo bird verdict; it is always effective in treating everything. My own conflict with the apparently empowering psychology left me disenchanted so much so that I felt there had to be something that acknowledged the bad bits of humanity or said things everyone was too scared to say. It never occurred to me psychoanalysis could hold the answer. Psychoanalysis is so much other than therapy or a school of psychology.
Psychoanalysis as I am discovering it holds a possibility – of getting to understand the human mind, disorder, society, power differentials. It may not be happy but it certainly is liberating. If psychoanalysis can do so much why is it that it that it is always sidelined or discarded as the brainchild of an old perv and his cronies (excuse my French). Apart from the Nazi book-burning spree, which helped partly silence Freud, there are bigger issues that need to be looked at. Psychoanalysis we were always told was an expensive and lengthy process so only the rich can afford it – granted but then again there are ways to get past that barrier if people wanted. Where there is a will there’s a way right?
I guess psychoanalysis represents something that we are in denial of. A denial of huge proportions. Now that I am sounding quite Freudian let me go that way. I feel we as a society like to believe that things can be made all right with a few pills and a quick dash to the therapist. Getting to acknowledge hate, anger or just acknowledging the dark side of human nature gets us jittery. We have come to believe that everything negative should be banished and the world will function well. Unfortunately that is perhaps why most of us need to see a therapist – we need to get rid of negative feelings and as fast as we can. It’s like getting rid of your shadow. Not that I condone outbursts of anger or hatred, I feel a repressed feeling tends to manifest itself in ways that can become ugly.
Psychoanalysis acknowledges our collective insanity as a civilization and does not claim to have a perfect or even an absolute cure. Perhaps in an age where instant and permanent cures are possible psychoanalysis seems out of place. But look at it this way psychoanalysts don’t carry the baggage of being all-powerful all-knowing as some of their counterparts do. A psychoanalyst treads carefully with a client without the all-knowing demeanour their scientifically trained counterparts do. They acknowledge their shortcomings, their attraction to their clients. Any therapist who did that would have their licence revoked and become the object of national television. For a therapist to acknowledge their own stance as only a facilitator and the client as the best descriptor of their problems is almost sacrilege.
Above all I think psychoanalysis holds a mirror upto our flaws, as a race and lightens the blow mental illness hits some of us with right in the face. No one is immune all of us are living an illness called life riddled with our own pathology. Treat one anther appears. Who would want that ? well some of us and we enjoy our symptom :)

CUSP @ CSCS is looking for applications for the Internship Programme in 2010-2011. Students with a background in the natural or social sciences, and having an interest in interdisciplinary work can apply for the programme. Interest and aptitude to work with questions related to integrated perspectives (integrating biological and cultural markers) on mind, mental health and well- being would be an additional advantage. The internship is envisaged for a period of 1 month. The interns will spend their time between CSCS as well as other institutional spaces that support their work, and will have to work in the libraries. Candidates will be expected, during the period of the internship, to participate in academic events, conduct formal and informal discussions with faculty and students, and to share, at the end of their tenure, a paper on their respective areas of research.

Interested Candidates can contact

Ranjini Krishnan : ranjini_k@cscs.res.in