Tuesday, March 27, 2007

Mass Therapy 3



During the break, I promised to add some sex in the posts as an attempt to boost attendance. It seemed to work, and last PIM session is the perfect vehicle for that.

While the umbrella topic was Stress, we covered many more or less closely related subjects.

Basically, stress is a physiological defence reaction from the body when it feels threatened. The levels of stress are thus determined by environment, personality, and existential awareness (this is especially true for pensioners for instance).

Based on these premises, Fernando tried to demonstrate that 1/ the environment is often made more hostile 2/ the person is often made different in representation to the others. And that it is these gaps which increase stress to sometimes unbearable levels.

He took several examples to convince us that being in touch with feelings, being self-aware, going beyond some nurtured artificial walls (like strong pseudo-religious concepts) was essential to know your whole self, and drop the masks. I liked the idea that everyone needs a couple of friends with whom there is no mask. I liked the models of self concept vs. self idea, and how he solved the Juan Estrada case (about suicide).

Now, where's the sex?

Fernando undertook 2 tests to illustrate his point that we were limited by education, morality etc. The massage test: 60% of grads would not do/have never done massage (unsease with body/nudity). The sexual orientation test: if you had to choose beforehand what kind of sexuality you would have regardless of all social stigma 30% of INSEAD girls and 20% of guys would pick Bisexuality. Which, as it turned out, would be the optimal "economic" view -2 being more than 1 in a one-shot game of life.

I must say we were all blushing red during the vote... How perverse ;-)

On the job front, interviews are scheduled for April 2 onwards. Now people are really stressed out!

PS: Don't panic, INSEAD or Prof. Bartholome does not advocate bisexuality. It was just an illustration of how "gaps" can occur...

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5 Comments:

At 10:35 AM , Blogger Stuart said...

hey domo!
U mentioned "self-awareness".
In India some people use Vipassana to get in touch with their inner-self.
It is a way of self-transformation through self-observation.

The practice of Vipassana itself involves observing sensations throughout the body, understanding their nature, and developing equanimity by learning not to react to them.

i'm not an authority on this but http://www.dhamma.org/en/vipassana.shtml should be a good starting point.
it also has a video http://web2.dhamma.org/video/qtime/apvip.mov

About dropping the veil .. well have u heard of Guru Rajneesh Osho? his followers take off their clothes and sit to meditate.
It is symbolic of letting go of ur mental blocks and the various barriers of society, etc.

He has an ashram in Pune, Inida and also several places around the world..

 
At 10:37 AM , Blogger Stuart said...

you can learn more about him at http://www.oshoworld.com and also listen to osho's discourses in English at http://www.oshoworld.com/audio/audio_eng.asp

 
At 11:51 PM , Blogger DomoDomo@INSEAD said...

Wow Manish,
That's a pushing Being in Tough with Feelings a little too far lol.
I don't think Fernando saw it in such a dramatic way, ie. when somebody (outer) "teaches" you (inner). More that by being more introspective, you get more sensitive to the world, as a way mostly to be happy and to reduce stress... So quite the opposite actually...

 
At 3:54 PM , Anonymous Anonymous said...

Was it an open class vote or anonymous paper vote?

 
At 12:21 PM , Blogger DomoDomo@INSEAD said...

Hey Anonymous.
Good comment, it was indeed an open vote -no secret ballot. I recall Fernando saying "Now that's your chance to come out of the closet" which I found hilarious.

 

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