Dr. P.M.Mathew (Vellore)
Dr. P. M. Mathew Vellore got qualified as clinical psychologist from NIMHANS, Bangalore. Thereafter, he was on the faculty of the CMC, Vellore, and served as clinical psychologist at the CMC hospital. There were not many practising psychologists then and he was the right person at the right time. Circumstances were favourable and he struck success early in his career.Later he obtained Doctorate from the Kerala University. He is a voracious reader and a prolific writer who has penned more than 15 books. Apart from being a columnist, he has worked as chief editor of `Manashasthram’ (a popular journal of psychology in Malayalam) and `Kudumba Jeevitham’. He has the gift of rendering complex ideas in a simple and captivating format. His popularity as a writer and columnist, to a large extent, rests on this ability.
He has been dealing with mentally disturbed people, neurotics and psychotics, for over 40 years. How have they affected him in shaping his vision of life?
“Well, in a way, they have helped me more than I have helped them. They have made me reflect on myself. I am indebted to them. Meeting people with delusions, fantasies and distorted perception of reality, a sensitive therapist will be motivated, sooner or later, to seek the real. My perception is that there is something that can be called `basic Being’ – I mean something that has no qualities or attributes. This is the real self. Generally, we all carry within ourselves `multiple selves’ or `role selves’. An affectionate husband has to take on the role of an assertive boss or that of a loving father or a dutiful son. In a single life, we play many roles. There are two types of people – the task-oriented and the defence-oriented. The so-called `normal people’ are task-oriented and they succeed in bringing these multiple selves to a state of harmony and integration. Neurotics and psychotics are defence-oriented. Unable to adapt to what seems to them a hostile and threatening world, they withdraw into their inner world and exhibit symptoms, which, for them, act as defence. Either you adapt and fight the world in order to survive or you flee it and inwardly stagnate.”
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