Ever since Descartes, the mind-body dualism debate has been in vogue. But perhaps nevermore than in the case of a woman, whose body is presumed to have a mind of its own, incapable of thinking beyond the body. Margaret Atwood's poignant and hilarious satire The female body, first published as a response to a letter…
Of Other spaces: Utopias and Heterotopias
It is not the place we occupy which is important, but the direction in which we move.Oliver Wendell Holmes, Author. One of the most startling paradoxes of being human is the simultaneous quest for the "here-now" as well as "the other". We aspire to live this life to the fullest whilst dreaming of other lives…
The Myth of Mental Illness
In 1960, The American Psychologist published a highly controversial and daring paper from the Hungarian- American Psychiatrist Thomas Szasz- The myth of mental illness. In an age when mental illness was much more stigmatized than it is now, Szasz's dissent is in every bit the voice of the devil's advocate. Yet, in it's all provocative…
Thoughts for the Times on War and Death
In 1915, soon after World war I broke out, Sigmund Freud wrote about the disillusionment of war and the conflicting dynamics of individual and collective morality, in this timely and timeless piece. Freud analyzed the harmony of paradoxes in the co-existence of opposites. The naive illusion of the civilized Disillusionment is, in essence, a result…
On forgiveness
Vergangenheit, The Crown (Peter Morgan) In his 1947 essay, On forgiveness, written for the parish magazine of the Church of St.Mary Sawston, Cambridge, C.S.Lewis meditates on the Christian message of forgiveness that is more or less, a refrain of sundays. The simple, brief essay is literally a review of a portion of the holy scripture…
Advice to a Young Tradesman
In 1748, Benjamin Franklin, the immortal axiom builder, as Mark Twain once described him sat down to write a brief letter to his friend, on money matters. As much as it caters to financial tact, it is also essentially a counsel for a better life from the polymath who realized that a virtue is a…
On Betrayal
He that has eyes to see and ears to hear may convince himself that no mortal can keep a secret. If his lips are silent, he chatters with his fingertips; betrayal oozes out of him at every pore.Sigmund Freud. "Neither trust nor forgiveness could be fully realized without betrayal. Betrayal is the dark side of both, giving them both…
Existentialism is a humanism
I realize today that nothing in the world is more distasteful to a man than to take the path that leads to himself.Hermann Hesse. In his famous defense for existentialism, Jean Paul Sartre elucidates what is and what isn't existentialism. Through this graciously tactful lecture Sartre shows how one can utilize criticism to reassert one's…
Why do men stupefy themselves?
Addiction is an adaptation. It’s not you–it’s the cage you live in. Johann Hari In the preface to a book on "drunkenness" by Russian physician P.S. Alexeyev, Leo Tolstoy delves deep into the intricacies of the psyche that depends on substances. His analysis of our inclination to lose ourselves from the threatening grip of reality, dares…
What is Psychology?
In 1956, Georges Canguilhelm, delivered a lecture at Collège Philosophique which was later published as an essay, as a sharp critique on Psychology, particularly of instrumental psychology. Canguilhelm's critique is still relevant at an age characterized by the crises of replication and representation. Canguilhelm's critique begins with the question "what is Psychology?". He argues how…
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