When Erik Erikson Met Gandhi and won a Pulitzer
When Psychoanalysis, History and Literature met.
Hello there and welcome to Psychology with Arjun.
For my first edition of this newsletter, I bring to you a very special story focusing on the intersection of the Indian independence movement and the practice of psychoanalysis.
Let me introduce the main characters of the story that we are going to read today.
Erik Erikson: To the layman, the name Erik Erikson may simply be a case of an extreme alliteration but for those who have been educated in psychology, Erikson is the name that first comes to mind when you think of human development. If you are like me, you have spent hours trying to remember all of Erikson’s life stages and their concurrent challenges but, that is not what this particular article is about.
M.K. Gandhi: Better known by the name Mahatma, Gandhi is everywhere in modern India. Whether it be our currency, our history books or even our NewsChannel debates. Gandhi truly lives on to this day and it is his legacy that influenced Erikson so much
The scene is from 1962 Ahmedabad where an ageing Erik Erikson has been invited to lead a seminar on ‘Human Life cycle’. This was Erikson’s first visit to India and, unbeknownst to him, also the most important trip in his life.
Erikson lived with a family at their residence in Ahmedabad but this was no ordinary family. This was the Sarabhai family. A family which owned a small mill in Ahmedabad. Why is this part important to the story you ask? Well, because this was the same mill where Gandhi conducted his first hunger strike and gave birth to the idea of the Satyagraha.
There were a lot of coincidences that led Erikson so close to the life of Mahatma Gandhi but once he got so close to him, he didn’t seem to want to let the Mahatma go. Erikson became interested in the life of Gandhi.
As Erikson learned more and more about the life of Gandhi, he realized there were some unmistakable similarities in the philosophies of Sigmund Freud, the Father of Psychoanalysis and Mahatma Gandhi.
‘Satyagraha’ literally translates to ‘truth force’. The protests that Gandhi had organized were not to defeat the British. They were an exercise to find the truth, an internal truth that could only be found inside each human being. For Gandhi, this truth could only be achieved by a non-violent internal war, a conflict that made you question your past and your present, even your soul.
Freud, on the other hand, insisted that it was the force of introspection which was necessary to understand the internal machinations of the mind.
Erikson summarized the similarities between the two appropriately saying,
I believe that the psychoanalytic method itself, by dint of always being a self-analysis paired with an attempt to understand another man’s inner conflicts, is a counterpart to your Satyagraha, because it confronts the inner enemy nonviolently
And thus a new insight was born. The Satyagraha and Psychoanalysis had been found to be cousins despite being completely separated in space and time. Two of the great men of the 20th century had come to the same conclusion albeit with different connotations to it. Freud believed that the internal non-violent struggle had to be scientific. Gandhi believed that the internal non-violent struggle was a spiritual journey that each countryman had to undertake. Freud with his insights gave birth to the school of psychoanalysis, a school that continues to exist and provide insights into human consciousness in the modern-day. Gandhi is the father of the 2nd most populated country in the world.
Two men who looked within and achieved greatness. These two men were brought together by none other than Erik Erikson.
But what happened to Erikson after this insight? He had never met Gandhi, and yet, Gandhi seemed to have made a unique impact on his life. Erikson performed a psycho-historic analysis on the life of Gandhi and compiled his insights in the book, “Gandhi's Truth: On the Origins of Militant Nonviolence” in 1969.
The book earned him the Pulitzer Prize in literature in 1970. A psychoanalyst who was on a simple trip to India for a seminar ended up performing a historical analysis on one of the most influential men of the century and won the Pulitzer Prize in literature for it.
Life really does take you to places you never expect, doesn’t it?
The sacrifices which you imposed on yourself and on others devoted to “national service” made you, on your return to India, ready for the masses as no man in history had been or has been since.
- Erikson to Gandhi
Thank you for reading my first story on Psychology with Arjun. I hope you liked it and if you did, let me and your friends know! It will really help me grow my audience and bring psychology into the mainstream in India.
If there is something that you would like to read, I am open to suggestions as well. After all, this is only my first time creating a newsletter.
I want to take this moment to write to Agrima, one of the closest friends in my life. She wanted me to dedicate the first post I write to her because she thinks it will ensure that my newsletter becomes a huge success.
So, Agrima, this better succeed or I am coming after you :P.
See you next week with another story from the realm of Psychology.
Until next time,
Arjun Gupta
I loved reading this article! It was informative and well-written at the same time to engage people's attention even if they're not from a psychology background. Great initiative and amazing topics, thank you for this!
I also had some topics in my mind that I think would be intresting to read up on. Where do I share the suggestions? Or with whom?
Thank you for sharing this fascinating story here. It really intrigued me to read more about it.