Psychology

You walk into the psychology classroom, and nearly double-take when you see who’s there - or rather, who’s not. There must be thirty-something guys in the small lecture hall, and there’s not a single girl. Wait, no - sitting there, in the middle of the room is a single girl who is surrounded by a flock of guys.

She’s definitely attractive, brunette with immaculate make-up and business casual attire that most women would kill to look that good in. It’s pretty obvious that the guys around her want nothing more than to get into her pants. She doesn’t even notice you as you walk to one of the few empty seats in the room in the back corner. You want her.

Ideas spin around your head as you try to figure out how you’re going to make the most of this situation, but you quickly realise that it's going to take something mighty special to even get this girl’s attention, much less win her over.

“Word is that she’s got a guy already,” the tall Indian guy sitting next to you says. “Yeah, don’t give me that look. I know that was what you were thinking. My name’s Vishal, by the way.”

“Hey, what’s up. I’m Alex,” you say. “And I guess you got me there. I was thinking about that girl… say, what’s her name?”

“Sarah,” Vishal says. “There used to be three girls in the class, you know. Then the other two got scared off by all the other guys, so now it’s just Sarah. I think she likes the attention.”

Sarah

“Definitely an interesting case study for a psych class,” you say.

“Oh you bet. We’re just diving into Freud now, so this is bound to get pretty spicy real quick,” Vishal says. “Even if his theories are utter bullshit.”

“Hey, I don’t think so-“ you say, but cut yourself off as the professor walks into the room, waving his arms in the air.

“Settle down, settle down, class is beginning,” the professor announces. He's wearing a designer t-shirt and looks like he’s in his mid-thirties, from somewhere in Latin America. He talks at a quick clip. “As you all know, we’re starting on Freud today, and the school of psychoanalysis more broadly. From the readings, you know the importance of sex to Freud’s thought. He talks a lot about this specific kind of energy that fuels our instincts - whose got the name for it?”

A couple hands immediately shoot up, and it looks like Sarah’s is the first one up. The other hands all belong to those sitting around her. It’s a little unsettling, almost like the students are competing, and the professor points - “Sarah?” he asks.

“Libido,” she answers, and the professor nods, moving on instantly.

“Good. Libido is characterised by Freud as driving the key fixations in a person’s life, something that you might also call the developmental stages. This sort of fixation is something that we’ll want to dive deeper into in this class, but does anyone have the name of this fixation, this investment of energy into specific objects or people?”

The same set of hands shoot up again. This time, Sarah’s narrowly beaten out by the guy sitting next to her, a blond dude wearing a dress shirt, and the professor picks on him with a quick “Michael?”

“Cathexis, or Besetzung in the original German,” he says curtly.

“Precisely. There’s some difference in connotation between the two words that makes a subtle difference in our interpretation of the work, but for our purposes, cathexis will do,” the professor says. He moves on again, explaining and re-interpreting the readings for this class that you haven’t done, often calling on students - it seems like he knows everyone’s name already. Vishal has his hand up a few times, and after he’s picked on to answer a question, you turn to him.

“This is kind of a weird class,” you whisper to Vishal.

“Yeah, you’re not wrong,” he whispers back. “but the prof did say he would grade participation, and I guess this is one way to do it if you’re in a lecture class.”

You slowly nod, watching as Sarah’s hand is up again for another question; she answers this time with an interpretation of some dream, focusing on the different significations of the color red. Doing well in this class is going to take a whole lot of work, but if you do, you’ll be able to catch the attention of the one girl in the class in the process. Is studying for psychology the best way to spend your time?

As the professor begins to wrap up the class, and you have yet to raise your hand up in time for the rapid-fire responses, much less answer a question correctly, you realise that you’ll have to make that choice as you decide on what to prioritise over the rest of the semester.

Vishal +5