Psychology as a science has always fascinated me but I find that like all other sciences, it is unable to keep up with the
growing awareness of self that is prevalent in the 21st century. According to Abraham Maslow's 'Hierarchy of Motives', we act upon seven basic needs. In this pyramid like structure, much to my disbelief and horror, belongingness and affection comes at the third level, that is, one of the lower levels while the highest position is occupied by Self-actualization or the realization of our full potential. Isn't our ultimate goal spiritual realization or Moksha? Traditional
psychology blatantly overlooks the existence of something called the Spirit or the Soul, even though, ironically the word psychology itself has come from the Latin word for 'soul'. As per the tenets of psychology human beings and their passions and traumas are all classified into a few categories and dismissed as workings of our brain and mind. How much more insensitive and fickle can you be? I am not reproving practioners of psychology and psychiattry, there are many who have understood the higher ideals of human life and accordingly administer the treatment but the statements themselves betray the claim of the science. I cannot accept that every emotion, every sensation, every quiver in one's spine, is the result of some trivial chemical reaction. Scientists will always try to put everything down to facts and figures, with the exception of a few insightful men like Albert Einstein but that doesn't change the fact that every human being is unique. This uniqueness is an innate trait, something that no classification or theory can take away. Another point of contention is the declaration of psychology that only human beings have the ability to love and that we are the most advanced beings on this planet. It is a known fact that many animals including elephants, gorrillas, budgerigars have only one mate throughout their lives and that if one of them dies, the other one refuses to eat or drink, finally succumbing to death just days after. Have you ever known any human being to die of sorrow and bereavement of a loved one? How can we put down animals in such a manner when we can never have the opportunity to crawl into their minds and feel what they feel? A lot of psychology is laudable, the detailed research into our
feelings and their motives is both interesting and useful but the science needs to evolve to include the most important component of any being, the Soul. Not all actions are governed by our thoughts and feelings alone. There is also intuition and spiritual knowledge, something that may be beyond the reach of science or any other human contrivance, even after a thousand millenia.