Psyched up games

"Speak out a word that comes to your mind when you hear my word"

So began the rules of the game I created sometime back during my college days. At that time, it contained a pinch of psychology to gauge emotional and intellectual depth of all participants. And it was a rage. I even named it Neural Network Mapping (NNM).

But when applied during long journeys in a large group of friends, it soon started turning plain as people lost out on depth. So the game metamorphosed into a more flashy style wherein all were encouraged to explore wacky and witty answers to maintain the tempo. During these changes, I discovered that the vocabulary and memory capacity of honest participants showed a remarkable improvement, especially for me as I played sort the role of a sort of referee.

Anyway this continued as a hit game into my corporate life, where I effectively deployed it during boring training sessions and long journeys. I even presented this idea to a trainer. That is when I came to know that it is a known method for psychoanalysis. I was pleasantly surprised and patted myself on my back for discovering the "psych frequency".

But, I was taken by surprise after nearly 1.5years when in the movie "Zindagi Na Milegi Dobara", Abhay Deol uses this technique to make his friends talk about their problems. Everyone in the gang which accompanied me threw me a glance, threw comments and appreciated as if my idea was used by the movie.

I was just walking a normal psychology line, where people's subconscious always has the real feelings. When the person has to talk about what he/she sees in the mind, it doesn't engage the brain. It comes directly from the subconscious. When the brain tries to restrict or modify, a significant and observable delay or stammering can be seen in the subject's response. Their lies the key to whatever is hurting the person. Key to psychology is observation, understanding and inference.

Happy Psyching!! :P