I strayed into the field of Psychology and counselling only during my early Sixties due to the dreadful days of the COVID pandemic. Moving with likeminded professionals, I honestly felt that I had not understood even the basics of human behaviour during my four-decade long career. Even a brief exposure to human psychology would have made me more effective in dealing with people, both in India and abroad.
It is sad that we leave this important aspect of mental health to a few professionals of this field and wash our hands off this responsibility. Thus, technical career personnel who need to deal with human capital lack understanding, sensitivity, and empathy making them ill-equipped to deal with their co-workers. Decisions are taken both in workplaces and home without this fundamental knowledge leading to a variety of conflicts.
A hypersensitive person I stay away from newspapers, TV channels etc as “Breaking news” really breaks me. Let me elucidate with a few newsworthy examples.
A high school student from Chennai studying in a prestigious school committed suicide in the wee hours after some domestic issues. Her attempts for counselling help late that night were unsuccessful. The girl with previous psychological issues was left all alone by her parents, grandmother, and sister only to find her dead body the next morning.
In another instance, a police constable in Karnataka who had become a father a week earlier, quarrelled with his wife via phone. He then gave her 150 missed calls; travelled 230 kilometres overnight and strangled her to death. When his mother-in-law banged open the door, he consumed insecticide and was found screaming that he had killed his wife. Sadly, an instance which was to celebrate the arrival of a new born baby boy turned into a gory murder.
All these instances could have been averted if the victim, primary care giver, perpetrator or supervisor had some exposure to Mental Health and a few life saving tips to handle such situations.
Mugunthan Chari
A433
