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A pair of cockroaches is the last thing most people expect to find when they are naked and about to take a bath. But in the hands of a psychologist who also happens to write fiction, an encounter with mating cockroaches magically turns into the jumping-off point for a wife to reflect on her strained marriage.

The short story “Sepasang Kecoak” (“A Pair of Cockroaches”), by Harini Tunjungsari, explores a woman’s feelings of remorse for having an affair. She realizes that she misses her husband.

In the story, the wife comes to terms with the fact that her bathroom is being invaded by cockroaches that are in lust. She decides not to disturb the insects’ fun.

The discovery, however, leads her to reflect on her own marriage, where boredom has become a reality and sex is merely a chore.

Harini has a sharp eye for picking up her story’s starting point and developing the seemingly trivial into a glimpse of personal tumult.

“Sepasang” is one of 60 short stories compiled in “Sirkus Emosi: 10 Tahun Tulisan Tangan” (“Circus of Emotion: 10 Years of Handwriting”).

The stories are the work of nine psychologists, all graduates of the University of Indonesia, and were originally published in Aufklarung, the Department of Psychology’s journal.

Problems of the psyche have long been a fascinating source of inspiration for the minds of Dinastuti, Dyah Yasmina, Gita Widya Laksmini Soerjoatmodjo, Harini Tunjungsari, Marcellus Haryono, Nelden Djakababa, Rima Olivia, Teddy Budiwan, and Uji Arum Ismartini.

Their years of studying psychology, in addition to long hours of practicing the science, have given them much insight into the workings of the human mind, including their own.

The anthology, which originally appeared in limited form in 1999 and was republished in January, is dedicated to Fuad Hassan, a former lecturer at the university’s Department of Psychology. Fuad, who also served a term as national education minister, taught all of the writers at one point during their student years. He passed away in 2007.

In the original anthology’s foreword, Fuad writes that each person has the ability to tell a story about nearly everything, be it real or imaginary: “Human beings are the true recorders of reality and experience. Both reality and experience may come across each other, staying on a bit before gradually seeming to fade from our minds.”

Borrowing from Sigmund Freud’s theory, Fuad says that these recorded experiences and realities are never really gone, but slip quietly into our subconscious, where they continue to play a great role in how we think and act.

Fuad, who was also well-regarded in literary circles, judged how his students articulated their life observations and made them into entertaining pieces of reflective lessons.

For him, the way the students wrote their stories was a unique combination of their life experiences and backgrounds in psychology.

Their stories usually departed from a seemingly ordinary incident, transformed into something meaningful that people could relate to.

The anthology was originally published to celebrate Fuad’s 70th birthday and only five copies were printed. But Fuad told the writers that the book was worth reading and must be published for a wider audience. It took more than 10 years, but that has finally happened. The book is divided into two sections and includes illustrations by Cecil Mariani, who also rendered the kitschy hand-drawn cover illustration.

Bagus Takwin, a psychology lecturer at the university, writes in the new foreword that it means a lot that the writers of the short stories are also psychologists, as they have the ability to capture human emotion.

The stories in the anthology tackle a diverse range of themes, from the search for one’s self and the struggle with personal issues, to the ups and downs of romantic relationships.

Bagus said the short stories touched him because they offered different perspectives on people’s conscience, as they conform to social demands or deal with life’s practicalities.

“There are rooms inside us where we don’t even dare to go inside and see for ourselves,” Bagus said.

“These short stories give us a medium to take a peek into those rooms.”