CCPI CIRCLE

Book Review

Handbook of Indian Psychology – (2008)

Edited by K. Ramakrishna Rao, Anand C. Paranjpe, Ajit K. Dalal. Cambridge University Press India Pvt. Ltd.

Review by Mr.Maxwell Antony George

About thirty eminent  international scholars, including among them modern Indian scholars,  from diverse disciplines  expound   classical Indian philosophical traditions, discuss their relevance to contemporary issues, and deduce  the implications and applications for teaching, research and practice of psychology.

 While the western  psychologists  speak of the stage theory of life, family life cycle, their tasks and their  successful  resolution, the Indian thinkers  had ages ago conceived of  science and spirituality, family life cycles :purusarthas (goals of life), moksa  release from all relations, asramas which are the 4 stages of life cycle, seven rites of passage or samskaras in childhood that mark the important developmental  phases .

Ramayana, Yogavasistha, Bhagavad-Gita  as Indian narratives  are a form of bibliotherapy  which can provide insights into the practical aspects of dealing with life’s problems and help develop counseling psychology according to S.K. Kiran Kumar Yoga,the single most important contribution of Hindu culture to worlds mental health has been successfully marketed  from California to Canberra and is the classic example of  teaching the world how to breathe consciously. The emphases laid on breathing, movement, action, pervasiveness, filling, and enlivening  lead in the understanding of atman as the most essential or central vital principle and it parallels the ancient concept of psyche. (S.K. Kiran Kumar, Indian Thought and Tradition  A Psychohistorical Perspectvie, pp. 46-47)

The Kasyapa Samhita  outlines the code of ethics and best practices t for the Indian health practitioner :

The physician should

·         be well taught, having received the knowledge from the sages,

·         have a scientific attitude, having observed the treatment several times and possessing the knowledge of effective formulation.

·         be an expert, skilful, clean, soberly dressed

·         have a brotherly feeling (compassion) for all creatures

·         be devoted to truth

·         be modest.

·         worship and follow divine power, Brahmins, leaders and experienced persons.

·          be free from fear, greed, infatuation, anger and falsehood.

·         have a cheerful  demeanor

·         be free from addiction of any kind. (p.306)

Characteristics of the intern :

The trainee physician should

·         obtain  the teacher’s  permission  to call on the patient

·          be dressed in white clothes, well groomed with an unconfused look and happy demeanour.

·          not enter the patient’s house uninvited. Once inside he should only see the patient and not look around.

·         not joke with the patient’s family  or maidservants.

·          not accept their praise or gifts.

·          speak respectfully.

·         not have close relations with or affection for them.

·         not receive anything from the women without the knowledge  of their husbands.

·         not sit with women in lonely places

·         be indifferent to the woman who approaches him with affection.

·          not share the family secrets or problems with outsiders.

·         not tell the family about the bad prognostic features.

·          always console them. (p.307)

The developmental stage of the person is not lost sight of in the administration of medication : In an infant who is wholly on breast milk, can the route of administration of drugs be through the mother and not to the child  (Conversely, how much of the drugs administered to the mother affects the infant, healthy or otherwise? )

The scholar Hemadri  describes  “giving health” (arogya-danam) i.e. providing medicine and healthy food to the  ill, showing them love and affection, and taking care of their physical needs. The giving  of health is considered to be as important as giving food - both have the component of nurturing another person.(No. 10, p. 375). Handbook  of Indian Psychology  should be of interest to anyone who is concerned about providing  health services  - doctor, counselor, psychologist, psychiatrist, mentor, guide, guru or disciple. For the most part, it is academic in tone, heavy, and challenging to those uninitiated  in Indian thought systems but rewarding to young Bana Bhattas who have an insatiable curiosity for the experience of men and manners. I like to think that creative geniuses  like Abhinaagupta  have a keen  desire to be open to multidisciplinary knowledge so that they may understand human life in all its ramifications.

The Handbook of Indian Psychology brings a theological perspective : ‘There are ranges of consciousness far beyond our ordinary waking consciousness. Our concept of consciousness  is closely related to what we think about our identity, and that again has a profound influence on what we do, become and dare to aspire for.’ -  ( Ibid.p.427, Matthijs Cornelissen)

The notion of jivanmukta in Yogavasistha lives like an emperor, has realized the true self, in the hierarchy of needs, self-actualization. The  idea of sthitaprajna is not to be thought of as only relevant for people who have renounced the world of pleasures. It is liberation, freedom and humanity is in dire need of it. According to Patanjali, one who has conquered the passions, senses, thoughts, and reason , is a king among people, a raja. He  is the raja yogi who has achieved tranquility  in every aspect of  human life.

The kingdom of God is within you. He who loses all, will find all, he who dies to himself, will live for ever.

Carl Gustav Jung's psychic inheritance, collective unconscious, the most important archetype of self , the self-realized person loses self  in  Jivatman, the individual ego is of  and from the Atman.

A girl at the age of fifteen or sixteen, at the height of her beauty and loveliness is  a source of delight in respect of material shapes, not too tall, not too short, not too thin, not too fat, not too dark, not too fair is she. One might  see the same lady after a time eighty or ninety or hundred years old, aged, crooked as  a rafter, bent, leaning on a stick, going along palsied, miserable, youth gone, teeth broken hair thinned, skin wrinkled, stumbling along, the limbs discolored. That which was former beauty and loveliness  has vanished. Getting rid of desire and material attachment to shapes is the escape.  Parinna  is comprehensive knowledge. (Mahadukkhanda Sutta, Middle Length Sayings, vol. 1. P. 116f)

How does the knower  attain a balance between  mindfulness (sati) and  equanimity (upekkha)? Mindfulness provides the necessary alertness to understand one’s own inner nature, and equanimity provides the necessary objectivity without subjective biases. ( P.D. Premasiri ,Varieties of  Cognition in Early Buddhism, p.99)

The book  suggests possibilities for the birth of new models in psychology and  seeks to revitalize the study of the soul, inner world, consciousness, bringing spirituality back into the scientific frame. Those not schooled in  the Indian philosophical systems will find themselves  plodding through the volume but persistence will pay some dividends. Open to evidence based research  are self-actualization with meditation, for the self-regulation of chronic pain, in the treatment of anxiety disorders, effects of meditation on empathy, compassion, and altruism,  on cognitive style and the treatment of anger and in tension headache,  improvement in visual perceptual sensitivity following yoga training and other claims including effects of spiritually based lifestyle on well-being.