Sanity Making ... By Dr. Hadi Eltonsi

Many of us work to satisfy our material needs, and when rich we show off. Others, less numerous, go beyond this to be happy about their self-image and proud of their existing material and psychological advantages and their social and mental potential, Former Ambassador Dr. Hadi El-Tonsi writes.

Hence, satisfaction of the ego becomes the axis and aim of existence. Others, even much less common, are not satisfied by inpidual happiness because their deeper feelings and understanding of others and their society enkindle the public interests; the aim of promoting humanity a necessary requirement for their self-satisfaction. Therefore, they dedicate themselves to public service, regardless of what they finally consider limited material gains.

However, they gain fundamental moral happiness when they reach their human and social goals to calm down their sorrow for the suffering of others when they satisfy their ambitions that justified limitless giving not matched by direct material gains.

But even those and after they attain this effective human motivation - due to their upbringing, life experience and their keenness on maturation – are often frustrated due to their back-warded societies or corruption or the maneuvers of politics; if they work in that domain, or their state of mind may change due psychological and material gains, so their political practice would become, even partially,a means to get wealth, power, or prestige, then they put off their internal drive to make change happen; as a result, they limit their goals to inpidual salvation, so purity and sincerity become a memory of ideal young times, that are not fit any more to meet matters of facts, even when the practice of these values was necessary to regain the lost happiness.

The tragedy here is the quantity of awareness that, that class of people have which led them to selfishness and to disregard the superficial temptation of possession, and to realize deeply the realities around and ways of change; so they get a combative will, as this awareness itself becomes a reason for frustration, bitterness, despair and impotence, hence causing misery or illness and isolation.

So what do you think of a man who could escape that destiny attending public interests with self-satisfaction without losing enthusiasm or integrity?

Dr. Magdy was born in Upper Egypt, the land of ancient civilization. His rich parents filled his senses with the suffering of the poor, charity and deeds without superiority.

In a world full of injustice and differences, social justice was necessary for his inpidual happiness and self-satisfaction.

In 1940’s when the phenomenon of “saloon communism” prevailed, so some of the rich were attracted by the theoretical manifest idealism of this ideology – in harmony with their human instinct and internationalism even if they sacrifice their properties – the enthusiasm of youth.

This led Dr. Magdy to join one of the leftist organizations, considering that the disciplined collective work is more effective to reach the noble goals.

Quickly, he discovered that that organization was manipulated by foreign interests when it abstained from supporting the Arab and patriotic aims towards the Palestinian cause due to the connection of that “kibbutz” (agricultural Israeli settlements) experience with the practical implementation of communism among other reasons.

So he left the organization since he was convinced that the realization of his mundane aims does not necessarily implicate being liable to detention and marginalization to serve an organization whose real goals and changing political calculations are not guaranteed to go in line with his motivation.

In 1950’s, he found his chance in the Egyptian Revolution aims and the establishment of the liberation authority partisan movement to perform his public service, so he joined the authority toincrease public awareness and attachment to its work.

However, the result of his voluntary effort was not upto his ambitions, as some of the co-workers did not care enough about public interest.

Dr. Magdy was motivated by Ghandi’s ideas about peaceful work, especially when he said be yourself the change that you want to make for the world; so he studied psychiatry as a way to attain maturation for himself and others with their own wills, and to achieve a society of harmony, peace and social justice.

His drive for perfection and development led him to study in the United States of America during a period of a scientific revolution in the field of psychiatry that opened new horizon, especially after they trained him on continuous self-education.

However, Dr. Magdy was previously a leftist but that wouldn’t influence his objective impression, understanding and integration into the American society in the sixties, when he considered it vibrant and full of potential, but as an adolescent who will move gradually towards more maturity and humanity.

His study period witnessed researches and revision of the validity of the psycho analytic theories that were considered more of academic than curative.

A new curative school – of which he was convinced as it goes well along with the work methods of the nervous system, and was used by the United States to choose space pioneers – was based on training on continuous directing of attention externally as a best way to get rid gradually of negative internal emotions by neglecting them, so the spiritual, mental, psychological energy consumed in them would be directed to the outside world with its objective facts, information and goals that require an abundant flexible energy and a sincere dedication with real positive feelings to achieve creative work for the benefit of the inpidual, the society and mankind.

Dr. Magdy knows that this theory is not the best to get easy money, as it needs time, effort and mutual will of the doctor and the patient, in addition to the latter’s desire to attain physiological maturity and stability.

Hence, he accepts the wish of the patient that faces physiological crisis to be cured with various methods, not necessarily using the theory in all cases without restriction.

But the profession he has was a conscious choice and a privileged opportunity for self-achievement and changing the society with sanity making always when there is a will.

More than forty years past since he started practicing the profession, coupled with the hobby, the service, One can imagine how many patients he cured, how many scholars he helped to be mature, how many were influenced by those scholars and walked on their path, and how many were influenced by the doctor, the people around him and what did all those made for themselves, their country and others.

Indeed, it’s easy to condemn what we see, may be that would justify the wrong we commit and exempt us from the responsibility of useful work and of being a good example, but this example is around us if we want to see and to bear the consequences of this vision towards the self and society.

Many times, it is a silent soft power without noise and imposition because it respects the inpidual’s choice and dedicate itself for action.

The soft power doesn’t aim at inflating the ego, instead and maybe with all the integrity, achievement and humbleness it doesn’t even feel or take care of the ego or in other word selfless, as it is involved with matters of facts and dedicated to the outside world with all its goals, feelings, experiences and information.

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