ON WELCOMING OTHERS TO OUR INNER LIFE

Prof. Dr. Ahmet İNAM

Each person has a "land" in herself. This land may be called inner land. Most of our contemporary people are not aware of the existence of such lands. They are not even conscious of their "inside." "External man" dominates in this world. They take the power in every country, they are the part of the capitalistic system: "technology addict," "pleasure stricken." They are fool of the facilities of modern life. They do not have inner world. They live their lives at the surface.

We need "inner man." Inner human beings. Those who are able to live their inner life, those who can make expedition to the deepest part of the inner world. Those who are ready to face welcoming their fate patiently. People who have not lost their faces yet, only they can allow the others as guests to their innermost land.

"The other in me" is usually considered as someone who is completely different from me. Sometimes she is identified with strangers with whom I can not communicate. Of course, we have strangers. We have people whom I can not understand and interpret. When such people belong to our culture, they are called intra-others or they may be members of a different culture and called inter-others.

I need others. My innermost land is desperately in need of others. Without others I can not be. They are inevitably part of me. I can not be blind to them. I can not deny them. They are there. They are where they are. Outside of me. And in my inner world.

I am not self-dependent. I am not solitary creature. My culture can not be isolated in the world. I and my culture have certain interactions with others, other cultures. I am aware of some of them. I try to control my relations to others. But, fortunately or unfortunately, some part of our interactions can not be understood even by myself. I am under the effect of social as well as natural forces. My physiological, psychological or sexual life partly determine the happenings in my inner world.

Our world is unique. We have the planet called the world. We can not, for the time being, escape from this planet. So we have to share it. To share it, we have to respect others, trying to communicate with others. We are, whether we like or not, condemned to communicate (If the others have already in me, this means that there were, and still there are some interactions between me and the others. To attain "more" perfect communication, outside communication with others should be complemented by inner one).

We have at least two types of others, then: outside and inside. Political, social technological life should take care of the outside others. Our basic concern is "inside others." Psychologically speaking, we are searching for our conception, imagination of others. First of all we should learn how to communicate with inside others. I am not a "single," "totalitarian" person. I am aware of the others outside. So, they have replica in me. They live their interpretation in the hermeneutics of inner land. Somehow, they are texts waiting to be read in my inside. I have inner talk with them. I am not a king. I am not a monarch. I have a republic in me. I feel the beloved other in me. They live in me. I remember them ("Andanken" in Heidegger's sense!). They were in past. But when I remember them, I bring them to "now," I give them life. I live with them. They become basic constituents of me (These descriptions have nothing to do with the so called "introspection method" in the 19th century psychology's sense).

I have the others in me. But I can not determine their personalities. They are free, they are as they are in my inner land. I can not impose any law "from above" on them. So, I have inner freedom. I am innerly free. Because I have familiarity with them. I consider them different from me. 1 let them be different. I am happy with their differences. I become "rich" by having them in my inner land.

Hatred and fear of others, "xenophobia", should be avoided. Otherwise, we begin to be afraid of ourselves. What we should do is to discover the unconscious forces dominant in my inner land. As I said before, part of it comes from our biological life as drives and instincts, some other arises from the ideological forces in our culture, history and society.

Understanding without communication is impossible. So there is no immediate understanding. In order to understand others we need "mediation." The mediation of "language," "culture," "body," "history," and so on... I have no choice to deny the others by calling them savages, brutes, crude, rough people, unrefined in their conducts, habits and tastes. Every culture has its "delicate," "refined," "fragile" characteristics. The point is to discover them. Discovery of them requires willingness to understand them. Willingness to listen to their voices coming from their peculiarities.

Each person, each culture is unique. Beside their uniqueness, we have mutually shared common ground. The more you discover the different lives the richer your inner life can be.

"Interiorization of others:" this phrase should not be understood psychologically! This is the metaphysical or "ontological" expression. You may even interpret this interiorization process as existential condition of our survival in this planet. Allow others to come into you, as your guests. Cover as many different others as possible. Do not be afraid of psychiatrists calling you "schizophrenic" (At least, most of the psychiatrists are the children of our modern technological world!). As long as you know what you are doing, you are not neurotic, let alone psychotic.

For what purpose you have the others in you? Not for making money, not for being famous, not for any benefit which might come from any sources. You have the others, because they are you.

Though you have never met an Australian aborigine in your external life, she is surreptitiously present in you. If you have any opportunity to know her, she becomes part of you.

Philosophically speaking, we need new theories of others. These theories should not be "logo-centric" and "typically western!" We have enough of them. We need another eye. Another heart. Another mind. We need to hear so far unheard voices coming from different cultures. We have, as human beings, mutually shared otherness in us. I am sure that some part of me is in you, some part of you is in me. We are complementary to each other.

Now, looking at the history of human kind, we see that there are some inexorable, uncontrollable forces playing on us. Yet, there is a hope that may be called "hopelessness of the hope," in order not to be slave of our fate. We can do something. We can hold each other's hands understandingly and coming into conclusion that the others are fellow travelers in our way to search for the better life worth living.