Course
Living Well: A Mode with Heart
What do we want to make real? Has the real receded into dream? ‘The future has an ancient heart’ was Carlo Levi’s reminder that only the heart can resolve the gaps in our modern consciousness and renew life by retrieving forgotten ways of knowing and being in the world. In times that fail to attend to the inner life we stop nurturing persons from the places that sustain culture and we just invest in more and more things. But this means the future and the construction of identity is organised from the wrong level of consciousness. Psychology shows us that this is a violation of the inherent processes of being and becoming which require another person to see us and animate our existence. Even though this affection is a necessity for revealing a person’s implicit potential and for these aspects to be admitted into the personality, we see this violation of possibilities in the treatment of our children who have their own lives, but lose the will to be themselves and which would develop their cognition from the world within their own heart. They adapt, perhaps not even knowing this has happened. Our hearts may have something to say that we cannot get from the intellect alone because the rational mind is not versed in creative principles of identity. Each being has a face and is a possibility that requires something to be drawn out from the indigenous level and recognised with both, thinking and feeling, so that we can agree to who we are.
The responsibility of psychology becomes enormous when there could be insights that could help us transition into a way of being that not only develops our cognition, but also the futures that have been on hold because we have not committed ourselves to releasing them. Many people have not been supported in having a healthy and creative relationship with themselves and others and, as it stands, we do not have a comprehensive theory of human personality that includes all aspects of experience. We tend to marginalise painful experiences such as grief and loneliness even though they can shape our inner sensitivity and not only reveal the nature of the deeper burden of isolation but also bring into range what truly matters and language it in such a way that it can be the gift someone else needs to hear, if only they were willing to listen. What shall we call this gift and what do we know about the searching look of another being in a culture that has instructed us to see stuff and remain in a disembodied form? Will we allow ourselves to be free enough so the heart can do what it wants to do to move our lives forward?
This course, ‘Living Well: A Mode with Heart’, draws on ideas from several fields including developmental and depth psychology. One idea is that there are different levels of self-experience that we can attune to and which suggest that the psyche extends into the body: We receive information from affective, imaginal, and somatic channels. Our embodiment may truly matter because it can expand our cognition and way of conceiving ourselves, especially if we can become aware that communication requires us to establish relationships in which we exchange information on multiple levels, differentiated and not separated. The heart is there, but if our head is not attached to the body we may not actually know much about its presence and how this contributes to the crisis of our times.
We will engage with and investigate such perspectives and questions of existence as they are lived, not solely written or talked about. This means the course will not only present ideas but also draw on lived experience, including our own, and often what is going on in our lives has more significance than we have yet realised. Different ways of knowing can work together to enrich our exchange and inform our perceptions of the world. This also means you really do not need to be intellectual or have any kind of special knowledge for this course. Education is a context that may require a different kind of effort. More of us tends to be present and we may go further if we make room for the possibility that not everything has to be analytically thought out to be known. The relational element that includes the living substance of our bodies and the opportunity to enter into heartfelt and holistic conversations which may resonate and constellate depth is important to this course. There is an invitation for this to be a space where we can suspend our agreement with the frenetic situation around us and meet ourselves differently.
“What is to give light must endure burning” – Viktor Frankl
I chose to study psychology because I wished to understand myself and the people around me better. It felt like there was something missing in all of us that we couldn’t quite comprehend, but had just adapted well to. This sense of distance and misunderstanding. It wasn’t until I took “Living Well: Modes of Self Focus” that I began to have my questions answered. Adhip offered such a unique way of teaching that felt less lonely than everything I had been taught before. He taught us about the spiritual realms of pain and love in a way that made far more logical sense than the psychology studies which wish to be scientific to the point that they lose meaning. His module was holistic and gave students a real opportunity to engage with life in a way that they may not have had the opportunity to before. I think the university would be a kinder place with more original thinkers if there were more teachers like Adhip.
Honestly, Adhip’s method of teaching has been transformative for me and other students. Last semester, he ran a 3rd year module entitled “Living Well: Modes of Self-Focus”. Adhip has such a unique approach to psychological topics when compared with the other module convenors on my course. There is no ‘psychology-as-usual’ when you’re being taught by Dr Rawal. I don’t have enough space to detail all the reasons, but this module has prepared me more for my future career in counselling/person-centred therapy than any other. By approaching the topics of ‘resonance’, ‘pre-reflective meaning’ and ‘modes of living’, Adhip has opened my eyes to the side of psychology that is concerned with people’s individual lived experiences. This is immensely useful for the way we think about mental health practice and is quite different to the majority of modules, which have focused on the empirical, scientific side. You may think that the scientific, statistical side of the course is what makes someone more employable and ready for the world after Uni, and there is a place for that. Head-over-heart thinking dominates the field, but I argue that it is more effective for us to be tuned into people’s hearts, what they resonate with, the things that speak to the language of the body, rather than the mind. There is a place for art, for expression, within psychology. These are the things that Adhip has brought to the table for me this year. This has deeply transformed the way I think, and struck a chord with me that inspires me. Through infinite patience and wisdom, Adhip is a mentor that deserves recognition for the impact he will have on my future career.
This module has finally after three years awakened my desire and want and care about psychology and for the subject as a whole. It’s nice how we are all able to share our opinions and be open and think more affectively rather than strictly in a logical/intellectual manner. This is a module that I would recommend to absolutely everybody and has influenced me to take a more affective approach in life in general and to my future potential careers and so on.
I felt I was part of an open discussion and that everyone was of equal value to the conversation. I felt it was a space I could be open about how the topic related to me personally and that this openness was reciprocated by both Adhip and my peers.
This module genuinely has genuinely had a positive impact on my life. Adhip Rawal is an amazing speaker and listener, with every lecture leaving me something to think about/investigate on my own. This module has made me understand many things about myself and has also given me insights from all types of sources that I would not have been able to find on my own. I was not expecting a module to have such a positive impact on my life, this module has definitely improved my thinking and speaking abilities whilst making me understand how crucial it is to take in information from all different kinds of sources. Adhip Rawal is an amazing lecturer.
I valued that we were allowed to go into our own discussions of the topic and elaborate deeper into how the unconscious affects our daily lives and decision making. I enjoyed studying the topics in this module as they offer a new perspective that i have not yet learned and discovered and I found them very eye opening and interesting. I also enjoy how I felt comfortable to ask any questions about the topic and Adhip was very attentive and answered the questions I asked.
Words cannot describe how special this module was to me this term. It was an incredible space that allowed and promoted so many essential discussions. I learnt a lot about myself and the world we live in. I met some amazing humans including Adhip who has an indescribable energy, presence, and warmth. He is so wise yet welcoming and accepting. He listened and gave space to everyone in the class with such kindness. His care for this module and his students was so clear which made us all respect him even more. I have not experienced a module like this during my degree and I am forever grateful that I was in this class and that I got to be a part of this module.