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)