Autobiographical novels are when ‘Emotions’ and ‘Logic’ are brought forward through the medium of ‘Language’ which we then ‘Perceive’ as we delve into the protagonist’s life and experiences; this is when one can truly acquire knowledge. In some cases, the author may try to explain a psychological term through the help of a story. For example, D.H. Lawrence’s ‘Sons & Lovers’ portrays Freud’s concept of the Oedipus Complex. Though unbelievable this phenomenon is very common in a place like India where men in their thirties still live with their mothers and in due time, become so dependent on them that they begin to find similar qualities in their lovers. Many novels that are read are third person narration omniscient. The fact that they are omniscient helps us to understand the different emotions that the characters feel and what causes them. Hence, one can get a true understanding of life and personality through logical deductive reasoning.
Apart from learning about human life and behavior, novels, much like scientific psychology also help to explore the various myths and instincts embedded deep in our psyche. The Hero Myth for example, which is seen in many a novel. We humans are beset with brokenness and imperfection and are constantly in search of an ‘Ideal Self’, the person we all want to be. But society pressures and our own sense of adapting as well as fitting brings us to a realization that the above can only be an ‘ideal case’ and never a real one. Just like the hero myth, the Mother Myth and the Jealous Romeo myth are also very commonly incorporated in novels. What we read greatly affects our subconscious, to which we then react with what we would term ‘instincts’. This also answers the fundamental question in ToK – ‘How can we know without knowing that we know?’
Art is an Area of Knowledge that is grouped in the category of creativity. But TS Eliot in his essay ‘Tradition and the individual talent’ states that even art is greatly influenced by the artist’s traditions, experiences and moreover what he reads. ‘No poet, no artist of any art, has his complete meaning alone.’2 Novels in a similar way affect our understanding of the other various Areas of Knowledge.
Until recently, consciousness which is a great part of psychology was not much studied by the Natural Sciences; it was considered philosophy. Scientific psychology has one immense drawback, that of being non-emotive. Stuart Sutherland wrote in the International Dictionary of Psychology “Consciousness is a fascinating but elusive phenomenon; it is impossible to specify what it is, what it does, or why it evolved. Nothing worth reading has been written about it.”3 The fact that nothing has been written about it shows how non-emotive psychology really is. Moreover even if there were something substantial written about it, it is not accessible to everyone and not many people would bother to research as much as they would read novels. But when they do come across a concept in a novel, they are left with no choice but to find out what it is all about and that is hen they would consider taking the pains to research on that particular topic which they would not otherwise.
Upon reflecting on what Stuart Sutherland said that nothing worth reading has been written about consciousness would be in itself debatable as he was unintentionally dismissing the entire corpus of the world’s literature-because according to David Lodge’s book ‘Consciousness and the novel’, literature is a record of human consciousness, the richest and the most comprehensive we have. Lyric poetry is arguably man’s most successful effort to describe qualia. The novel is arguably man’s most successful effort to describe the experience of individual human beings moving through time and space.4
Psychology uses logic to differentiate people into two distinct categories namely ‘introverts’ and ‘extroverts’. However, one may have the most creative people performing the most intelligent things and the most extroverted people being introverted at some point in life. Human beings as such cannot be ‘pigeon-holed’ into categories such as this. Paradoxically, psychologists have a big problem with people. When someone learns psychology they begin to think a lot about people and start forming judgments about them. This in turn changes their behavior towards them which changes everything.
On the other hand, novels tell us there are billions of shades in human beings and there is not one definite thing. This would have to be agreed upon as the human being is too complex to be compartmentalized in terms of behavior.
However complex, scientific psychology is something that is developed over a period of time with full logic and understanding of the human mind. But who came up with this theory through scientific psychology? How and on what basis? How reliable is the source? On the other hand, novels are nothing but perceptions of authors. Novels consist of real time human emotions, experience, thinking, reflecting, opinions, ideas and much more.
Knowers would still strongly believe that much of our personality and knowledge about human life is derived from psychology using scientific methods. But little do we realize that it is the things we read everyday that help in moulding our perception of human life. Though psychology is a more reliable source of knowledge which employs logical and technical means to examine human behavior, it is not accessible to the ordinary man. Besides its limitation of language restricts its ability to communicate as novels do.
Word Count: 1,322
