hypnotism and psycho-analysis.
a psychologist and an ananlyst, he had been in practise for many years and had a number of cures to his credit. he worked in a hospital as well as in his private clinic. his many prosperous patients had made him prosperous too, with expensive cars, a country house and all the rest of it. he took his work seriously, it was not just a money making affair, he used different methods of analysis depending upon the patient. he had studied mesmerism, and tentatively practised hypnosis on some of his patients.
"it is a very curious thing," he said,"how, during the hypnotic state, people will freely and easily speak of there hidden compulsions and responses. i have myself been scrupulously honest, but i am fully aware of the grave dangers of hypnotism, especially in the hands of unscrupulous people, medical or otherwise. hypnosis may or may not be a shortcut, and i don't feel it is justified except in certain stubborn cases. it takes along period to cure a patient, generally serveral months, and it is a pretty tiring buisness."
"some time ago," he went on,"a patient whom i had been treating for a number of months came to see me. by no means a stupid woman, she was well read and had wide interests; and with considerable excitement and a smile which i had not seen for a long while, she told me that she had been persuaded by a friend to attend some of your talks. it appeared that during the talks she felt herself being released from her depressions, which were rather serious. she said that the first talk had quite bewildered her, and she did not want to attend the second talk; but her friend assured her that this often happened, and that she should listen to several talks before making up her mind. she finally went to all of them, and as i say, she felt a sense of release. what you said seemed to touch certain points in her consciousness, and without making any effort to be free from her frustrations and depressions, she found that they were gone; they had simply ceased to exist. this was some months ago. i saw her again the other day, and those depressions have certainly cleared up; she is normal and happy, especially in her relationship with her family."
"this is all just preliminary," he continued. "you see, thanks to this patient, i have read some of your teachings, and what i really want to talk over with you is this: is there a way or a method by which we can quickly get to the root of all this human misery? our present techniques take time and requre a considerable amount of human investigation."
sir, if one may ask, what is it you are trying to do with your patients?
"stated simply, without psycho-analytical jargon, we try to help them overcome their difficulties, depressions, and so on, in order that they may fit into society."
do you think its important to help people fit into this corrupt society?
"it may be corrupt, but the reformation of siciety is not our buisness. our buisness is to help the patient adjust himself to his surroundings and be a more happy and useful citizen. we are dealing with abnormal cases and not trying to create supernormal people. i don't think that is our function."
do you think you can separate yourself from your function? if i may ask, is it not also your function to bring about a totally new order, a world in which there will be no wars, no antagonism, no urge to compete, and so on? do not all these urges and compulsions bring about a social enviroment which develops abnormal people? if one is only concerned with helping the individual conform to the existing social pattern, here or elsewhere, is not one maintaining the very causes that make for frustration, misery and destructiion.
"there is certainly something in what you say, but as analysts i don't think think we are prepared to go so deeply into the causes of human misery."
then it seems sir that you are not concerned with the total development of man, but only with one particular part of his total consciousness. healing a certain part may be necessary, but without understanding the total process of man, we may cause other forms of disease. suerly this is not a matter for argument or speculation; it is an obvious fact that must be taken into consideration, not merely by specialists, but by each one of us.
"you are leading into very deep issues to which i am not accustomed, and i find myself beyond my depth. i have thought only vaguely about these things, and about what we are actually trying to accomplish with our patients apart from the usual procedure. you see, most of us have the inclination or time to study all this; but i suppose we really ought to if we want to be free ourselves and help our patients to be free from the confusion and misery of the present western civilisation."
the confusion and misery are not only in the west, for human beings the world over are in the same plight. the problem of the individual is also the worlds problem, they are not two separate and distinct processes. we are concerned, surely, with the human problem, whether the human being is in the orient or the occident, which is an arbitrary geographical division. the whole consciousness of man is concerned with god, with death, with right and happy livelihood, with children and their education, with war and peace. without understanding all this there can be no healing of man.
"you are right, sir, but i think few of us are capable of such wide and deep investigation. most of us are educated wrongly. we become specialists, tecnicians, which has its uses, but unfortunately that is the end of us. whether his speciality is the heart or the complex, each specialist builds his own little heaven, as the priest does, and though he may occasionally read something on the side, there he remains till he dies. you are right but there it is."
"now, sir, i would like to return to my question: is there a method or technique by which we can go directly to the root of our miseries, especially those of the patient, and thereby eradicate them quickly?"
again, if one may ask, why are you always thinking in terms of methods and techniques? can a method or technique set man free, or will it merely shape him to a desired end? and the desired end, being the opposite of man's anxieties, fears, frustrations, pressures, is itself the outcome of these. the reaction of the opposite is not true action, either in the economic or the psychological world. apart from technique or method, there may be a factor which will really help man.
"what is that?"
perhaps it is love.
j krishnamurti...