The wonder of BOUNCING

It is amazing how interactions with other individuals can add a new dimension to our thought process. This girl who has below average intellectual abilities starts fighting with another patient outside my chamber, when she comes in for her session, she is upset. She is not able to accept my assertion that she need not fight. She talks of self respect and as I discuss the various interpretations of the terminology she has used, I begin to become aware of its meaning – spontaneously. I start evaluating the difference between one’s own perspective of self as compared to that of others and how it affects the respect for self. I tell her the difference between ego and self respect and realize that I never read about it or even thought about it before today but still I am able to give a concept. Now, as I ponder over it, I have a sudden urge to search the net, to check out how others feel about it. And lo behold, so many have deliberated over the issue before myself and have more or less formed the same concept as I have.
So does that mean that all of us think similarly, or all answers lie within or there is a common unconscious that Jung referred to as the collective unconscious? Well, as I further explore it in my sobriety; I feel these are mere perspectives, perspectives that are derived from common norms and ethics that are part of the common society, perspectives that work for us. This is perhaps the result of the Jean Piaget’s “hypothetico-deductive” thinking we all are supposed to attain by adulthood but all of us don’t; but that is a matter of another perspective.
My friend has just informed me that it is “bouncing off ideas”; i.e. when we find answers while we are discussing them, even asking them. So I will call this column the same. But I just can’t stop being amazed- that the answers lie within and bounce off when we start churning the ideas. Is that metaphorical then, the churning of the sea that led to the rise of all treasures – the vish and the amrit. Before it gets too philosophical and bounces of our heads I’ll pause, still wondering though that if you are thinking what I am then why is there the difference of opinion. May be that is why we all don’t develop the same level of hypothetico-deductive thinking. Let’s leave this discussion for the next time.