AN HOUR WITH THE MAHATMA

Mental Health Prof.Life beyond DSM and ICD

Psychiatry……..

……. cannot be free of Values

•Self-determination, dignity, happiness and well-being will remain the ultimate goal

The extra humanHealth

-growth

Expansion

Fittedness

flow

Illness

Contraction

Stagnation

Misfittedness (temp. or longlasting)

What can be…….• An unconscious tool subject to Paradigms set by others (traditionalist)

Or

A self conscious , self directed entity(a bit of rebel!!)

What cannot be….

A reluctant psychiatrist

A preacher and not a healer

The neo Hindustan

‘Adaptational crisis’

‘External locus of control’

Contemporary IndiaRisk of forced homogenization

Is being Good and successful exclusive?

Need vs. greed //// the last man………..

Attention deficit….

Honesty , truth ,sharing , sacrifice, social concern --Are they mythical words?

We inhabit a common space and time

Which way are we headed?

KindnessGenerosityFor all or for our ownCompassion Empathy giving a little bit—space ,time, edge , Lose a bit

Utopian happiness

Or

Steady movement with minimal deflection.

Myth of freedom

Choice overload

Choice before thought

Write an advertisement of yourself

Few essentials…..Empathy

Tolerating ambiguity

Genuine concern

Innovative

Knowledge and skill

Beyond diagnosis

Mind’s process• Play of Opposites

• Needs a frame

• Divides and categorizes

• Repeats

and

explores

Close your eyes

And

Don’t think about monkeys?

Why does mind behave like a monkey?

the power of the invisible?Danger exploration

escape/fight acceptance

Loss Attraction

emotionality

RageLustPanicFearPlayLaughterseeking

Guilt ShameViolence agitation

primary secondary

MR. Spock or Mr GandhiTotal Rationality

Or

Rational emotionality (integrated emotions)

You are caught in interpersonal problem in your life and are upset. And to top it the first session is a couple who fight and blame each other in front of you. ----your response

•Emotional detachment ? Objectivity or subjective bias

Personal characteristics are the most robust indicator of success

essentialstherapeutic

• Alliance

• Engagement

• Transference

• Authenticity

• Resolution

• Directive

• facilitative

Extra therapeutic

• Compassion

• Empathy

• Love

• Breaking the limit

• Genuine

• Mirror or vessel

Focus…..• Resource activation

• Mundane problems or heroics

Is the anxiety cultural?

POSTCOLONIAL---AND POST LIBERAL

• Western--• Logical, rational, • Cause- effect• Linear history

• Eastern--

• Experiential • cyclical• Intuitive

• Whether man can respond to an example or lesson from another time frame?

• If so ,than moral issues can be discussed separated from context.

toolsCorporate style Vs Indian style

Narrative ,, the story and its wisdom Biography and inherent process

• Krishna ,buddha • Tagore’s romanticism or Gandhi’s Hatha yoga

• ‘ Its all in me’ • empathy

BE THE CHANGE YOU WISH TO SEE IN THE WORLD

WHY GANDHI?• HISTORY vs. MYTH

• TEMPORAL PROXIMITY

• COULD HARMONIZE LIFE AS a WHOLE

• OPEN BOOK in the heat and dust of life.

DON’T FOLLOW HIM• LOOK AT THE PROCESS…..

• TRANSFORMATIONAL SKILLS

• CONSCIOUS EFFORT

• Pied Piper?

HIS PREMISE…

• Above all HUMAN CONCERN…..till the last man ---Truth is GOD

Honesty

Truth and accountability

Persistence Turning loss to opportunity

AHIMSA

Dispossession

FEARLESSNESS

• ACTUALITY

And

MUTUALITY

• EXPERIMENTATION

-- COURAGE TO FAIL

-- ACCEPTANCE

Decision making

• AUTONOMY

• FREEDOM OF THOUGHT & ACTION --alternatives

• ONE’S OWN TRUTH……

• PERSISTENCE

• Till the last man

• BEYOND ONESELF

• GIVING RATHER THAN TAKING……….

• Karma - action - God in details.

Process….

• Connectedness

• Inclusive– for all

• Details of life as a continuity --WORK

IMMERSION and innovation

• Delayed gratification• Dignity of labor• Self respect• Waiting for the turn• Fear of death – false security— material good• Fearlessness• Faith and focus

• A father and son come to the Psychiatrist and want him to resolve their conflict.

• The son wants to pursue academics and father wants him to join family business..

• How would you handle?•  

Or….• Compassion

cognitive emotion-- Empathy

• Emotional contagion• Emotional accuracy• Perspective• Emotional regulation• Concern for the other

Risky skill…• Fine balance between • inner focus and self reflection(risk of self absorption) & Focussing too much on the other (risk of

losing your own thought)Avoiding self interest……Gandhi balanced the two….

• INNER CONFLICT

Master of Empathy• Man is more important than principle

• Truth is experience and not a creed

• True empathy is the source of Ahimsa

• Minimizing ego and desires

• Harmonizing within prevents external conflict

LOVE

• Simplicity of language and life

• Making Gods out of clay

• Reconciliation

• ‘Inner voice’ or Conscience

Inconvenient Or

DIFFICULT

Is the brain trainable• Conscious exercises to develop• -- decision making• --delayed gratification (frontal lobes and DLPF)

• Sublimate desires

• Develop prefrontal cortex to tame limbic system• Meditation –yoga-discipline