Literature must be seen through psychological dimension

Source: The Post

LAHORE: Chairman, department of Urdu, Jamia Milia New Delhi, India, Shamim Hanfi has said that present century is of conflicts, disputed personalities and differences as we are breathing in an environment which is badly polluted by Psychological sickness.

He was addressing at the inaugural session of the “International Conference on Psychology & Literature” here at the Bokhari Auditorium of GC University, on Friday.”Man comes across glittering realities of life only through self denial and utter silence prevailing all around the human being of this age, is also the greatest Psychological issue. In order to understand literature properly, it is necessary to explore its Psychological dimensions”.

The conference was organized by Psychological Society of GCU. Shamim Hanfi said that the present century is inspired by literature created during 20th century including Darwin, Carl Marx and Sigmund Freud as these persons left indelible impressions on human history.

Dr. Sohail Ahmed Khan, acting Vice Chancellor and Dean Faculty of Languages, Oriental and Islamic learnings, said that a student of literature should have close contact with relevant disciplines like Sociology and Psychology as the knowledge of various dimensions of these disciplines unfold many layers of interpretation of hidden meanings of the words before him. He said that Psychology was not only a way of mental treatment but also a source of understanding deep realties of literature. He said that writing such a fiction as might be full of Psychological insight and vision is pretty difficult task. He observed that the need of the new paradigms in all disciplines was increasing and stressed that South Asian people can’t contribute new ideas to the realm of sociology or psychology unless they relate them to their social circumstances.

The chairperson of the department of psychology Prof. Dr. Kausar Sohail in her welcome address said that the department had the privilege of conducting symposiums and conferences on un-explored areas of Psychology in Pakistan. She said that the relationship between Psychology and Literature was deep routed and sadness, panic, loneliness, emptiness, existential neurosis, childhood fears, anxiety toward body changes and others words used both in psychology and literature reflect that both disciplines are inseparable. She said that every good writer and poet is a psychologist but every psychologist dose not necessarily have a good understanding of human nature as a poet is swayed rather by sentiment than by reason and always teaches his subject in a partial fashion. He also thanked the participant psychologists, students and the literary figures who came from different parts of Pakistan and India.

The literary session was presided over by Dr. Rafia Hassan and Dr. Intizar Hussain whereas speakers included Dr. Sohail Ahmed Khan, Siddiq ur Rehman Qidvai, Dr. Khalid Sanjarani and Dr. Asir Ajmal.

Panel discussion was also held which was co-ordinated by Dr. Asir Ajmal and presided over by Prof. Shamim Hanfi and Dr. Ruhi Khalid. The discussant of the panel session included Shehzad Ahmed, Dr. Naumana Amjad, Asghar Nadeem Syed, Mirza Athar Baig, Amjad Tufail, Masood Ashar and Khalid Saeed.

A quiz and poster competition would be held on the 2nd day of the conference. 3-plays will be staged and skits and mimes will be presented.