Why Psychoanalysis is Indispensable to the Teacher
The success of educational efforts much depends upon the personal relationship between the teacher and the pupil. This point should not be neglected either by the practical teacher or the education theorist. The teacher is prone to the influence of parental complexities, because for the pupil, he is the psychological situation of the father or mother. The teacher is in a position of authority which may provide a favorable opportunity for the gratification of such powerful impulses as self-esteem, self love, pleasure in inflicting pain. These impulses work in such a disguised form that consciousness cannot easily recognize their true nature. The pupils, too, can resort to narcissism and exhibitionism if the teacher is not able to handle them in a psychological manner. All this requires that the teacher must be able to understand his own psyche so that he may take due precautions against his special tendencies and complexes. He should also be able to get into contact with the pupil’s psychic life. The teacher can be tolerably free of complexes. if he has at least achieved a fairly satisfactory fulfillment of his own conscious and unconscious desires. If the teacher possesses some complex, he may use a situation for his own personal gratification, thus foiling the very purpose of his work. If the teacher has not properly understood the relation between emotional and intellectual processes, he is sure to stultify and neutralize educational results. Thus a knowledge of psychoanalysis is indispensable to the teacher.
Naturalism in education is closely connected with psychoanalysis. “The teaching of Freud was a Godsend to the post-war apostles of naturalism, both in educational sphere and outside of it; it was believed to have proved the soundness of their case for untrammeled self-expression and for entire freedom from restraint.” Psychoanalysis emphasizes that the natural growth of the child should not be explored in any way and that the natural growth of the child should not be explored in any way and that the unconscious should be explored in order to understand the cause of neuroses so that suitable steps may be taken. It is because of psychoanalysis that a healthy attitude has grown towards ’sex’ and ‘authority’. Corporal punishment and authoritarian methods are now shunned. Dangers of undue prudery have now been laid bare with the evil consequences of ‘any bottling’ up of the child’s energies. Psychoanalysis has rendered valuable service in helping us towards the understanding and treatment of delinquency in childhood and adolescence.