"Self-images, identity and nationality/ edited by P.C.Chatterji."

The theme of the contributions in this volume has strong psychological overtones and perhaps even extrapolates from
what we are familiar with in individual psychology, carrying this over into the life of communities. The language of self image, identity, crisis, trauma and the rest is now currently employed not only with reference to the individual but · to
collective life. Soul-searching is never a very comfortable process. We do not see ourselves as others see us and the 'others' in turn are not a homogenous group but fall into a variety of collective entities. We see through a succession of filters and naturally what we see is coloured by that through which we look. At the level of ordinary perception, and now I speak of pratyaksha, an illusion is cancelled out by a veridical perception. Take the pencil out of the glass of water and you see that it is not bent at all. But is there anything parallel to this in our perception of social reality? We seem more likely tb
exchange one illusion for another, although no doubt there are occasions when we feel the scales fall from our eyes and behind the stereotype we suddenly see what Stefan Zweig has described as 'the eyes of the eternal brother'. Too often the veil falls again, the lens is blurred or even distorted. Our illusions about social reality are often intimately connected with modes of time. Groups, not less than individuals, can have hang-ups about the past, or sometimes undue expectations with regard to the future. When all this boils up in the 'now' of the present-day, the individual or the group has a sense of crisis and this can show itself in aggressive behaviour or withdrawal or in some other manifestation of stress.