Establishing the role of Ahamkara in interpersonal relationships

Abstract

Humans have a natural tendency to form groups and relationships. Interpersonal relationships guide an individuals affiliation to various groups/institutions, life satisfaction, academic performance, organisational commitment, and various important aspects of human life. Literature suggests that interpersonal relationships are affected by a diverse range of factors. The importance of self in the field of interpersonal relationships has caught extensive attention of researcher and practitioners. Ahamkara is defined as the aspect of mind that generates the cognition and feeling of me and mine by identifying all the experiences with self. Ahamkara has been illustrated as a meta construct that incorporates various modern psychological concepts of self and identity (Salagame, 2014) [43]. The study suggests that an extremely low or high sense of self may negatively impact the interpersonal relationships of an individual. Along similar lines, western studies have also emphasized the concept of optimal self-esteem (Kernis, 2003) [20]. It is, thus essential that both formal and informal institutions of learning such as family, community, schools, and colleges should cultivate and promote the development of moderate ahamkara for optimal functioning through interventions proposed in classical Indian literature like Yogasutra.