Therapy, Meaning, and Education
On finding purpose in a system that rarely asks who you are
A few months back, I came across this blog post written by Karthik Shashidhar (he is also my first boss and an OG blogger). The blog presents a great perspective on therapy. In short, he talks about how the goal of therapy should be to help you rediscover (or discover) who you really are. And be comfortable with your true self.
I have never been to therapy sessions, but I used to do a lot of meditations from the Headspace app. There, the central idea of almost all sessions was this: How can one be comfortable with their own thoughts? So I figured, the implicit goal of therapy must be something along those lines too.
Recently, I finished reading a book called "Man's Search for Meaning" by Viktor Frankl. The book is roughly divided into two parts. In the first one, the author recounts his experiences in the Nazi concentration camp. In the latter part, he delves into Logotherapy - a form of psychoanalysis. The second part of the book is quite rich and dense with many thought-provoking lines. I doubt I have imbibed the knowledge of the book completely. But the book's teaching is centred around how one can find the "meaning of life" and how gaining pleasure is not the ultimate goal for everyone:
Man's main concern is not to gain pleasure or to avoid pain but rather to see a meaning in his life.
I find many such propositions and quotes, floated by Dr. Frankl, to be quite pertinent.
When I think about how the Indian education system is designed and the role different mentors and alumni play in shaping young brains, logotherapy feels like a crucial missing piece of the puzzle.
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Our college education curriculum should have some elements - a subject or a course - which actually enable one to find the best version of oneself. This should nudge one in the right direction. Or maybe empower one to ask the right questions about the career, even if the correct answer is not there.
Just take a look around a batch of any subject. Computer science, Philosophy, Mathematics, anything. The path of students from that class will diverge to do different things in their careers.
But our education system - or the seniors - provide absolutely no early guidance to select the proper path in this journey.
Alumni or mentors do a rather poor job in most cases. For most institutes, you will see an alumnus with 10+ years of experience come and give a "motivational talk" about what tools to use so that the students can land their dream (which will die soon anyway) job.
You want to get into full-stack development? Learn Java. Data Science? Learn SQL & Python. Android developer? Why not learn Kotlin! While this is not bad advice, they just don't nudge you to be the best version of yourself. They just nudge you to be a generic service provider. Nothing wrong with being a service provider. But the best value generation - for most of the students - will come when they will be able to discover their knacks (or in Dr. Frankl’s words - a heavier phrase - the “meaning” of their life).
There will be a section of people who will just go with the flow. They will treat their jobs as a means to fulfil some end. Nothing more, or nothing less than that. But for the rest, finding the right path becomes crucial.
There is also another school of thought that exists in this aspect. Unless one goes through the dull meaningless work, they won't be able to understand or appreciate what meaningful work looks like. I get the point, but don't quite subscribe to it. Why not try to minimize the number of unproductive years from the beginning itself?
In essence, Karthik's take on therapy as a journey to find your true self clicks perfectly with Frankl's logotherapy - it's not about chasing pleasure (or reducing discomfort) but finding meaning. This is exactly where our education system fails its students. Instead of just churning out Java coders and Python analysts, what if we actually helped students figure out who they are?
Most mentors are also too busy showing the tools rather than helping students discover their knack. We need education that does more than produce generic service providers - we need it to help students navigate that tension between who they are and who they could be. Why waste years in meaningless work when we could be setting them on the right path from day one?
In the words of Viktor Frankl:
"Mental health is based on a certain degree of tension, the tension between what one has already achieved and what one still ought to accomplish. We should not, then, be hesitant to challenge man with a potential meaning for him to fulfill.
If this made you pause and think, maybe share it with someone who’s on a similar journey.
Well, there is a certain beauty in finding one's true calling and unfortunately, the way the world works, many never find it.
I am really grateful to my 8th standard Computer Science home tutor who made me fall in love with programming. In a way, it felt like I found my calling and I didn't want to do anything else for a living.
The real tragedy is there are people who could excel at a field due to their natural ability, but are forced to be just a service provider in a field they don't really like.