Sexuality and Human Development
Sexuality and human development opens us up to the integrality and integrity of the human person in the different stages of development. The human person is sexual, from conception to death. There are various erroneous conceptions of sexuality which sometimes disfigures our notion of the person. There are cultural and religious biases which contradict the true nature of the human person in his or her totality as intended by the Creator. Sometimes, sexuality and spirituality are juxtaposed as we do body and soul/spirit. The former is considered mundane while the latter is considered sacred. What if you learn and believe that both are sacred and that one cannot actually develop wholesomely without the other? This is what this course will teach the students. Sometimes we know it in our head but we do not live it out in reality. Our judgement of ourselves and others become faulty as a result of the unconscious belief that a deeply spiritual person cannot be sexual at the same time. Sexuality and spirituality are two sides of the same coin.
The human person is biologically, socially and spiritually wired. This is why we have needs, attitudes and values, the domains which Sigmund Freud called Id, Ego and Super-ego. These are not mutually exclusive in human growth, but one has to choose which to feed more than the other since whatever you feed grows. Human development is not lineal, it is rather spiral, such that one cannot grow without a hitch. However, for various reasons, one aspect of a person may get more educated than others. Thus a great intellectual development without a commensurate emotional maturity may leave us with an intellectual giant who is an emotional dwarf.
During and by the end of the course, it is hoped that the student will acquire both knowledge and skills to live out her consecrated life in an emotionally maturing manner.
OUTLINE OF COURSE
WEEK 1
General Introduction
Popular and cultural ideas about sexuality and sex
What sexuality is not and what it is
WEEK 2 Human Motivation
WEEK 3 Sexuality and the three dimensions of the human person (levels of psychic life and human consciousness)
WEEK 4 Physiological and psychological Needs
WEEK 5 Values
WEEK 6 Consistencies and inconsistencies in the Consecrated life
WEEK 7 Stages (Seasons) of human development in relation to the Consecrated life
WEEK 8 Psycho-sexual maturity – (the question of sublimation)
The Process of Internalization
WEEK 9 Sexuality and Consecrated Celibacy
WEEK 10 Sexuality and Spirituality
Community life and female relational dynamics
WEEKS 11&12 REVISION/EXAMINATION
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