What I learned from 10 hours of psychology course

I have completed 10 hours or five lessons of 2 hours course on psychology and spirituality call the JUNGIAN PSYCHOLOGY AND CHRISTIAN SPIRITUALITY. It is a six weeks course and I have completed two weeks so far.

I told Fr. Huan that it is a struggle for me because I was torn between a Christian and an ex-non believer. When he is teaching, my mind went fast forward and rewind about things in my life and things that I encountered like knowing some of the people with problems. I said through the course, I can attach a term or a name to those things. I do not know if he knows what I am talking about but he did say that we are supposed to apply our own situations to the things he taught.

Today, I asked him why some people seems to have more psyche energy and seem to be able to do many things (to release those psyche energy) while others seem to be more relaxed in their lives? Is it because these people (actually I was talking about myself) who seem to be hyperactive have gone through more rough patches in their lives? Fr Huan said it could be a factor but at the same time, some of those people who seem to be more docile are probably repressing their psyche energy. He said these people may one day explode due to too much repression in the Id. Blek, I am just trying to figure out if I understand the meaning of Id, ego and superego, ok? Show off a bit lah, can?

We Christians are warned about the theories from Sigmund Freud but we do learn about them. The reason is because Sigmund Freud said there are only two things that drive us humans, eros aka sexuality or aggression, thanatos. Sigmund Freud said we humans are the ones who created God and one day, we will have no more need of that thing call God when we have control of our Id, or our primitive instinct. I wanted to tell Fr Huan that I agree with Sigmund Freud that indeed we will one day have no need of God when we really can learn to control our lust, greed, desire and those things call sins. But I dare not open my mouth because it will be too shocking for the rest of the class. Moreover, I do not click so well with Fr Huan yet so I had to repress my desire to open my big mouth. I mean, it is true, isn’t it? We humans will never come to the state where we can play nice with each other. So, there is never a question of human kinds eliminating God. We need religion and that omnipresence call God to make us behave.

As a Catholic convert, I can actually jump into Carl Jung and Sigmund Freud theories much easier because I have no previous strings attached and I have no preconceived ideas of how religion should be. It is one big discovery for me. Ultimately, I pray that when I finish this course on psychology and spirituality, I will be much wiser in dealing with my pastoral care voluntary work in Mt. Miriam. The course is essential in Christian counselling and I hope the Lord will make me a little bit wiser.

There is a CPE course in Assunta Hospital like the one I wanted to attend in Singapore (spore no longer gives out 90 days visa so I can forget about it). However there is only one unit (out of four units) available in Assunta. I am not going to PJ anytime soon as it is already the year end and with the new school year opening and Chinese New Year, I don’t think I want to go. If only…I had gone in September, I would be back next month. But then, it is all God’s plan so que sera sera.

Anyway…it is nice to be back studying. A bit tiring as all my four mornings are spent either at the hospital or at College General. I was joking with my sons that maybe I should go to Disted College and take up Psychology. And they said, “Ma…then, you will end up mental pulak.”