A Professor of Clinical Psychology, Ambrose Ali University (AAU), Ekpoma, Henry Imonde has warned that personality should not be based on selfishness as it will continue to be unhealthy.
He said this while delivering his Inaugural Lecture Series with the title, “How Are You? Wholistic Approach To Psychological Well Being”IN Ekpoma, Edo State.
In his words, “Any personality based on a selfish style of life is unhealthy. Any individual or group whose ideals and set goals is selfish and centered internally is bound to fail and have diminutive growth.”
He said that people’s needs for one another develop a social interest, a sense of solidarity and identification with other people.
People with strong social interest, the Prof. said, strive for superiority in a way that contributes to others psychological wellbeing.
According to Imhonde, “They want to cooperate with other people and groups, not to compete, they build people not to destroy, and they help people to re- discover life satisfaction not trouble. This is the way to build and enhance a good psychological wellbeing in yourself, those you are leading, those around you and within your community and workplace.”
He informed the gathering that at the stage of picking a topic, he had had settled for a title, “Life or Death: Mental Health………” but that a careful consideration from the psychological perspective showed that this two extremes are not contestable except that other factors, serves as mediating variables that determines life or death to the extent that the Almighty allows.
To buttress his point, the university Don pointed out that life and death, as postulated by Sigmund Freud, epitomises man’s behavior, cognition and emotions.
Sigmund Freud, the academician, postulated that life is symbolised by man’s enjoyment, which is lived out in our sexual urges and sexual activities adding that should you indulge in happiness and sex, your wish in that circumstance, is to live.
Speaking further he stated that on the other hand, the wish to die is manifested in our aggressive behavior and that as a result for him, the life of every individual revolves around these two extremes but that the choice is yours to make.
He, however noted that having been in the field of Psychology for over 22year, he came to the conclusion that great sex and aggressive behavior symbolises life and death but that the interplay of environmental cues, our personality and physiological make up, enhances life or increases the speed to death.
The Prof. said that one of such variables is our psychological wellbeing, adding that our locus of control, the personality attributes, which characterises an individual tendency to internalise or externalise happenings around him, is highly suggestive of whether we chose to live or die.
He said that it could be in the workplace, family, community, in health or ill health, disability or ability, if our psychological well-being is not adequately enhanced by our personality, physiological and environmental cues, we are bound to be aggressive; which means the part to death has been chosen.
“But I bring to you today, that happiness and the choice to quality life, is possible and most often this is usually elicited by a simple question people around you ask and their positive relationship with and towards you,” he said.
The Clinical Psychologist with over 22 years’ experience stated that it was in the light of the forgoing that his Inaugural Lecture was titled, “How Are You ? Wholistic Approach To Psychological Well Being.”
According to him, “I do appreciate that at the end of the lecture, when you ask someone ‘How Are You’, you actually in a second, are sincere in what you are asking and really care about the psychological well-being of others?
