Suprapti: An unemotional expert on emotions

Suprapti: An unemotional expert on emotions

JAKARTA (JP): For some academics at the School of Psychology,
University of Indonesia, it was only fitting that Dr. Suprapti
Sumarmo Markam chose "experience of emotions" as the topic for
her doctoral dissertation as well as her scientific oration
marking her professorship.

Suprapti's study, which helped her obtain her doctoral degree
cum laude, was on the wide range of such basic emotions as
sadness, happiness, anger and fear. In private life, she loves
paintings and theater, and is an accomplished pianist. She loves
Chopin, especially the piece entitled Fantasy Impromptu, and had
a hard time accepting her youngest son's choice of music, which
is modern jazz.

And yet, she is known as an unassuming person who is very much
in control of her own emotions. For dozens of years of her
teaching career, not many people can say that they have seen her
angry. And not many people have seen her bantering or making
small talk, either.

"Actually, she is a person who is emotionally very rich,
judging from her interests," according to her colleague,
experimental psychologist Dr. Dewi Matindas. "But not many people
can predict her because she rarely shows any display of emotion."

Dewi described her senior colleague as someone who is very
generous with her advice and always willing to share her
knowledge -- and yet rather stingy with her smiles.

"Only few people who are really close with her can know how
unpretentious and modest she really is," Matindas said.

Suprapti delivered her scientific oration on the occasion of
her installment as the school's professor last Tuesday in a
gentle, yet distant, manner. During the latter, acknowledgment
part of the speech, which often makes new professors overcome
with emotions, Suprapti's tone remained controlled.

Born in Medan on Feb. 19, 1938, Suprapti finished her
elementary and secondary education in Jakarta. She planned to go
on to the teachers' college, because she wanted to become a
kindergarten teacher, but later abandoned her dream because her
relatives said she was "not funny enough".

"I entered the School of Psychology, instead, because it was
my father who founded the faculty," she said modestly.

"I never set targets for myself because I'm afraid of being
disappointed," she told The Jakarta Post. "I don't want to hitch
my wagon to the stars, I just want to keep on being an ordinary
person."

Suprapti has an impeccable academic records and has been
involved in many scientific activities, including some workshops
on emotion and culture in a number of countries.

She obtained her doctoral degree in 1992 and will assume the
position of dean of the School of Psychology this week, replacing
the outgoing dean Prof. Dr. Jaumil Agoes Achir.

At home, Suprapti is a concerned mother of five grown-up
children and grandmother of four. "I think I'm very lucky to have
her as my wife," said her husband of 35 years, Dr. Sumarmo
Markam. "I only need to give her my monthly salary and she runs
everything smoothly."

"If I were to describe my wife in only one word, I could not
find any other word except 'amazing'," Markam said proudly. (swe)