Medusa's Hair by Gananath Obeyesekere

Author:Gananath Obeyesekere [Obeyesekere, Gananath]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Religion, Spirituality, Philosophy
ISBN: 9780226616018
Google: eLPzwAEACAAJ
Barnesnoble:
Goodreads: 549000
Publisher: University of Chicago Press
Published: 1981-01-01T00:00:00+00:00

Part Four

Introduction

In part 3 I discussed the integration of the individual to the group via a set of personal symbols. The cases I have thus far presented were “successful” ones—use of the symbol system resulted in the integration of the personality, the amelioration of psychic estrangement, and the incorporation of the individual into the group. The ideal goal of the symbol system is the integration of the individual on the three levels of personality, culture, and society (the relevant group).

Ideal goals are not often realized in practice, and “success” is a relative matter. Every therapeutic system has its toll of failures, but such unsuccessful cases do not necessarily nullify the principles underlying the curative system. For example, that a patient suffering from a well-understood disease dies even after the best diagnosis and treatment does not always mean we do not understand the cause of the disease or the nature of the treatment. The reverse, we also know, holds true; a disease may be cured through radically different and theoretically contradictory therapeutic measures. Nevertheless, failures merit study since they may illuminate the principles underlying a therapeutic system, by pointing to the consequences that follow when these principles do not hold in a particular case.

This is what I now intend to demonstrate in the cases studied in part 4. But I will go beyond the case studies to generalize on an important feature of social life: subjectification. Subjectification is the reverse of objectification: cultural ideas are used to justify the introduction of innovative acts and meanings. Subjective imagery is to subjectification what personal symbols are to objectification. The former help externalize (but do not objectify) internal psychic states; yet such subjective externalizations do not, and cannot, constitute a part of the publicly accepted culture. I will discuss the contrasts between these fundamental processes, focusing especially on the capacity of personal symbols to effect the integration of the individual with the group and the difficulty faced by subjective imagery in this regard. I must note, however, that even personal symbols do not always work in the expected manner, particularly in situations of social change—as for example, where a person manipulates a traditional personal symbol inappropriate to the changed social situation. Finally I will conclude part 4 with a theoretical discussion of the role of psychological imagery—fantasy, subjective imagery, and personal symbols—in the personality structure of individuals in non-industrial societies.

Descent into the Grave

Case 7: Sirima Hettiaracci (Age 37)

Sirima Hettiaracci was born on 26 August 1942, the youngest of seven children. Her father was a carpenter and mason employed at the Kalatuvava reservoir, which supplies water to the city of Colombo. The reservoir itself is about thirty miles from the city. The family lived in her mother’s parental home nearby. Her father had no paddy lands but had a stable income, so that most of her siblings had a reasonable education, and some were gainfully employed.

Sirima lived in Kalatuvava for the first eighteen years of her life. Her recollection of her first nine years was nostalgic.

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