Relation between Poetry and Psychology with special reference to the Poetry of Kamala Das (original) (raw)

2013, IOSR Journal of Humanities and Social Science

The 'Psychology' and 'Poetry' are two different fields. It is not easy to compare the two. Although they cannot be compared, but there is a close connection which undoubtedly exist between them. This connection arises from the fact that the practice of the art is a psychological activity and as such can be approached from a psychological angel. Considered in this light, art like any other human activity deriving from psychic motives is a proper subject for psychology. Art by its very nature is not science, and science by its very nature is not art, both these spheres of the mind have something in reserve that is peculiar to them and can be explained only in its own terms. Hence when we speak of the relation of psychology to art, we shall treat only of that aspect of art which can be submitted to psychological scrutiny without violating its nature. Psychology is the science of human mind, behavior, soul, consciousness, unconsciousness etc. As it is the study of behavior, it includes anything a person do which can be observed in some way. It also includes feelings, attitudes, thoughts and other mental processes. In the same way poetry represents thoughts, imagination, and awareness, experiences expressed through meaning, sound, and rhythmic language in such a way as to evoke an emotional response. According to modern psychologists that the unconscious processes are more important than the conscious ones. It is these unconscious impulses that lead the poet or any artist to produce a poetical work or any other work of art. What poetry may refer to as the abyss, our wilderness or wild, psychology more likely refers as the unconscious. Poetry offers psychology its own perspective on the reaches of the realm, a unique repository not only of energy, but also of imagery, metaphor, paradox, inversion, contradiction, and often enough beauty. Poetry valorizes and embraces the resources of the unconscious. Kamala Das born on 31ist March 1934 in Malabar, Kerala. Indian poet, short story writer, novelist, playwright, essayist, non-fiction writer, children's writer, and autobiographer. She is one of the best-known contemporary Indian women writers. Das has been called a poet in the confessional mode. The confessional poets deal in their poetry with personal, emotional experiences which are generally taboo. There is a ruthless self-analysis and a tone of utter sincerity. What a confessional poet gives us are the psychological equivalents for his or her mental state and it is such psychological equivalents, that we always get in the poetry of Kamala Das. She reflects almost all aspects of psychology in her poetry. So, thus by comparing the poetry of Kamala Das with the field of psychology, at the end can say that there is a close relation between poetry and psychology with special reference to the poetry of Kamala Das.