We have just left the bloodiest century in the history of mankind behind. It was a century fought with wars, ethnic violence and injustices that were never answered. It was a century that brought out our prejudices and hatreds out in the open against those who differ from us claiming millions of lives.

All this happened while the discipline of psychology looked on helplessly as a bystander unable to find explanations for human evil or develop interventions to prevent this senseless violence.

The twenty first century we hope will be one where we find answers to some of the most vexing questions besieging mankind such as explain the roots of evil and ways in which mankind can leave behind its violent past.

At Swanchetan we believe it is possible if we look inwards, form bonds and working through our grief comes to an understanding about ourselves and our relation to the other.

We believe that psychology can be in the service of liberating us from our hatred, our prejudices of each other and develop pathways of healing that bring peace to communities.

The present situation is one of emerging hope mixed with despair, one that is full of contradictions and ambivalences as we chart our journeys through a maze of violent struggles in our search for peace.

We believe no institution or discipline alone has the answer but if we shed our isolation and truly connect where there exist deep fissures and divisions between us, answers will emerge.

We at Swanchetan are doing behavioral studies into the roots of evil that can be applied to populations undergoing trauma and a psychotherapy based on these insights should be created that reaches out to the poor, the marginalized and the oppressed.

As Swanchetan does not work in a clinic or in a sterilized space but psychologists who work directly in the midst of suffering we see issues as part of a person’s historicity, his trauma rooted in his community and strive for answers based on contextual wisdom and causation.