PSY101: An Introduction to and the History of Psychology

First thing Monday morning after a weekend which you don't want to come out of, is Psychology 101. This is by far the most unusual class I've attended. It is boring to the lower levels of suffocation and at the same time highly interesting. The course is designed to give an introduction to Psychology and look into the History of Psychology. We have been doing this for the past few weeks under the guidance of Prof. D. Mallikaarachchi and his assistant Wathsula who teaches the English medium class in Sinhala. Our professor is a renowned one who has lectured not only at the University of Peradeniya and the BMICH but also in London. He has probably travelled around the world and been exposed to many different varieties of the English language because he speaks in a variety of different accents. Of every five words he speaks, one is tinted with Australian, one with British, two with the typical Sinhala and one with his very own unique version of the verbal execution (no pun intended – seriously!) of the language.

Yesterday we were discussing "the Darwin" and how his work On the Origin of Species "shut-herd" the Christian concept of The Creation. The "padamantal" ideas presented in this book were introduced during the course of this lecture. It was pointed out (with no offence to the Christians in the class) that animals were not considered psychological beings in the past due to the idea given in the book of Genesis that they were created simply "for consumption by humans". Whether it is of offence to anyone in the class or not though, the concept of God is false.

Maybe it's just a first impression, but so far, it seems that our class is going to have to become worshippers of the Analytical School of thinking. The "other" school (the Behavioral) is not really a school because behavior is only PART of out psychology. After all, "we are all actors; women are acting all the time". Ha ha ha! Further reading includes articles published by Prof D Mallikaarachchi in the Sunday papers. There are also published critiques of these articles, but they are negligible.

Our class last Tuesday was cancelled because the Professor had to be in Colombo on Wednesday. Our class today was cancelled because the Professor had to see ABA at the Sigiri in Katugastota.