Psychological Confessions: INFANCY

On February 14, 1988, I was born  into this world.  I am the first born in our family. Consequently, I am the first granddaughter, first niece, first in everything. Naturally, I became everyone’s favorite and center of attention. I was always on the limelight, but not for long. I had a baby brother when I was two. And according to my parents’ accounts (since I can’t remember everything that has happened when I was still very young as a proof to Freud’s theory of childhood amnesia), I was so jealous of the new baby that the moment they went home from the hospital with my newborn brother, I threw a tantrum telling them to bring back the baby to the hospital or else I won’t let them in. I was two years and seven months old then and a selfish little brat at that. Now that I think about it, could this experience brought about my craving for always being the center of attention? I have this theory in mind that since I did not linger long enough in the limelight of my parents and relatives, this could be why I have always craved for attention and affection (being the leader in numerous school organizations, lead actor in lays, winning contests and quiz bees, falling for the next guy who is in close proximity and gives me the attention that I need, etc.). I think this theory of mine explains a little part of who I am today which means that Freud was really conveying some substance to his readers and followers when he said that our present problems and complexities can be traced back to our childhood traumatic experiences.
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Public Administration

When I first thought about ‘Public Administration’, mental pictures of working in a government agency like GSIS where I am presently working, more so leading a public organization, flashed in my head. For instance, being the President and General Manager of GSIS; or being the President of the Philippine Association of Schools Superintendents like my grandmother; or being the President of a country like Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo. Then I thought, ‘Public Administration’ — very tough responsibility, very challenging task. While all these things were swimming in my head, this definition came to mind: “the willful and well thought of process of organizing and mobilizing organizations which are geared towards the service of the general populace in a manner that best serves its function.” That’s my rough definition of those two heavy words which I later found out is not that different from the other definitions given to it. And yes, my definition is also quite general but so did some of the early definitions of Public Administration coined by various scholars of this field. To name some:

-Woodrow Wilson: “Government in action involved in the detailed and systematic execution of public law” (Waldo, 1953);

- Leonard White: “ …the composite of all laws, regulations, practices, relationships, codes and customs that prevail at any time in any jurisdiction for the fulfillment and execution of public policy…(White, 1955)”;

- Waldo: “the organization and management of men and materials to achieve the purposes of government” (Waldo, 1955);

- Fritz Morstein Marx: “…signify primarily the organization, personnel, practices, and procedures essential to effective performance of the civilian functions entrusted to the executive branch of government…”(Marx, 1959);

- Nigro and Nigro: “..a cooperative group effort in a public setting, covers all three branches – executive, legislative and judiciary – and their interrelationships, has an important role in the formulation of public policy and is thus part of the political process, is different in significant ways from private administration, and is closely associated with numerous private groups and individuals in providing services to the community.” (Nigro and Nigro, 1955);

- Rosenbloom: “ ..The use of managerial, political, and legal theories and processes to fulfill legislative and judicial governmental mandates for the provision of regulatory and service functions for the society as a whole or for some segments of it…” (Rosenbloom, 1986).

Those were some of the definitions. However, in order to understand Public Administration more easily, we can also dissect the various ways ‘Public Administration’ can be defined.
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