Geetanjali Shree wins International Booker Prize 2022

 

Indian author Geetanjali Shree and US translator Daisy Rockwell have won the International Booker Prize for Hindi novel “Tomb of Sand”, a first for a book in an Indian language.

This prestigious award of 50,000 ($63,000, 59,000-euro) is awarded to fiction from around the world that has been translated into English. The award is shared between the author and translator.

Judges hailed “a book that is engaging, funny, and utterly original, at the same time as being an urgent and timely protest against the destructive impact of borders and boundaries, whether between religions, countries, or genders.” Judges panel chair Frank Wynne said the novel “has an exuberance and a life and a power and a passion which the world can do with right now”.

International Booker Prize should not be confused with Booker Prize, they are two separate awards. International Booker Prize is given to an author for their work written in an international language, then translated into English. Meanwhile, Booker Prize is awarded to a book/novel written in English.

Indians who won Booker Prize

Five Indians have won the prestigious Booker Prize award till now: 

• VS Naipaul won the award for In a Free State in 1971
• Salman Rushdie for Midnight’s Children in 1981
• Arundhati Roy for The God of Small Things in 1997
• Kiran Desai for The Inheritance of Loss in 2006
• Aravind Adiga for The White Tiger in 2008

 

Indians nominated for International Booker Prize: 

Six Indians have been nominated for International Booker Prize apart from Shree:  

• Salman Rushdie in 2007,
• Mahasweta Devi and VS Naipaul in 2009,
• Rohinton Mistry in 2011
• UR Ananthamurthy in 2013
• Amitav Ghosh in 2015

 

Three Types of Personalities

 

Three Type Theories of Personalities

 Theories adopting the type approach advocate that human personality can be classified into a few clearly defined types and each person belongs to a certain type according to his behavioural characteristics. The following are few type theories of personality:

 (A) Kretschmer’s classification

Kretschmer classified all human beings into certain biological types according to their physical structure and has alloted following definite personality characterisitcs associated with each physical make-up.

(i) Pyknic (having fat bodies) – Their personality traits are that such people are sociable, jolly, easy-going and good-natured.

(ii) Athletic (balanced body) – Such people are energetic, optimistic and adjustable.

(iii) Leptosomatic (lean and thin) – Such people are unsociable, reserved, shy, sensitive and pessimistic.

 

(B) Sheldon’s classification

Sheldon too like Kretschmer, classified human beings into types according to their physical structures and attached certain temperamental characteristics to them as shown below:

(i) Endomorphic – Persons having hightly developed viscera but weak somatic structure (like Kretschmer’s Pyknic type). Such persons are easy-going, sociable and affectionate.

(ii) Mesomorphic – Balanced development of viscera and somatic structure (like Kretschmer’s athletic type). Such persons are craving for  muscular activity, self-assertive, love risk and adventure.

(iii) Ectomorphic – Weak somatic structure as well as undeveloped viscera (like Kretschmer’s Leptosomatic) characteristics such people. They are pessimistic, unsociable and reserved.

 

(C) Jung’s classification

Jung divided all human beings basically into two distinct types – introvert and extrovert – according to their social participation and the interest which they take in social  activities. Later on he further sharpened his two fold division by giving sub-types. In this process, he took into consideration the four psychological functions – thinking, feeling sensation and intuition – in relation to his previous extrovert and introvert types. This division can be criticized on the ground that in general the different types or classes as suggested by Jung do not exist.

Humanistic Approaches - Abraham Maslow and Carl Rogers

 

 The humanistic approach began in response to concerns by therapists against perceived limitations of psychodynamic theories, especially psychoanalysis. Abraham Maslow has been a very inspirational figure in humanistic approach to peronality theories. He was one of the pioneers in that movement to bring human being back into psychology and the person back into personality. Maslow’s contribution lies in his preoccupation with healthy people rather than sick ones his feeling that studies of two groups generate different types of theory. Maslow chose the more direct course of studying healthy people whose wholeness and unity of personality are readily apparent.

The most common criticism is against his methodology. He picked up a small number of people that he declared self actualising. Then discussed about them and concluded what self-actualization is. Another point against him is he placed certain constraints on self-actualization. Also basically we take care of our lower needs before self-actualization comes to the forefront.

Carl Roger is the second name famously associated with the humanistic theory of personality. He was not only one of the founders of Humanistic Approach but also the  most influential therapist in the twentieth century. The person-centred approach, being the unique approach to understanding personality and human relationships, found wide relataionships in various domains such as psychotherapy and counselling, organizations. Roger’s person-centred approach has been criticised on various aspects. The most important is that many psychologists tend to impose their views based upon naïve phenomenology. He also ignored the unconscious determinants of behaviour, attested by psycho-analytic investigators over a long-period.