By Alexia Martinelli, Pedagogist in Yogasofia Project and Association Ankur Yoga, Italy
For the past 3 years, thanks to the collaboration and commitment of several experts in the education field, I have been working on a research project assigned to the Neohumanist Academy (https://anandamargaitalia.it/) to which I belong. For quite some time now we have been investigating the best way to spread the concept of Neohumanism by integrating it with various studies that have long impacted the fields of pedagogy, sociology and psychology. On several occasions we have seen that some of these studies could perfectly integrate the Neohumanist vision, while others would need to fine tune the way they observe reality, through Neohumanism.
This is for example one of the goals we have for our project Yogasofia in Italy (www.yogasofia.info). We address our research also to educators who are neophytes in the field. It is not an easy task to question well-established theories applying a holistic and universalistic approach.
During the last few days, for example, I had a discussion with a friend and colleague of mine on Bowlby’s famed attachment theory, which is valued by most of the psychologists and educators. Without undermining his work, which for sure offers one of the possible interpretations on the issue, we should ask ourselves whether his suppositions would be still considered valid if observed from a neohumanist and holistic perspective.
In such experiments the child is not analysed in a systematic way and is often observed only through the first levels of consciousness, without taking into consideration the yogic science dealing with samskara (reactive momenta or latent tendencies), the family tree influence, and other conditions that could strongly affect the way the child reacts to the situation.
In the course of history humans have often jumped to conclusions, for example by seeing the mother’s behavior as the cause of autism. The purely analytical vision, in my opinion, should be discouraged in the field of Neohumanistic research, which is based on a comprehensive approach. This could really bring us closer to the various possible ways that Consciousness is expressed in each single person.
This new approach would positively influence the educators’ attitude, leading them to refrain from simple judgments that can give an immediate sense of confidence but prevent the individual to evolve in complete freedom.