The Essential Sudhir Kakar OIP: Second Edition

Description

The fifteen essays included in this volume celebrate three streams of knowledge-psychoanalysis, culture, and religion-and their confluence in Kakar's work. From the role of empathy in psychoanalysis, male-female relationships, and Indian sexuality to modern mysticism, religious conflict, Hindu childhood, and the significance of imagination-these writings represent a breakthrough in Indian social consciousness and indigenous knowledge systems. In the Preface, Ramin Jahanbegloo looks at the depth and influence of Kakar's ideas, while the Introduction by Manasi Kumar critically comments on how Kakar's ideas fit the larger context of psychoanalytic theory and culture. An interesting inclusion is a conversation between Sudhir Kakar and Madhu Sarin which explores the evolution of Kakar's relationship with psychoanalysis-from being influenced by psychoanalysis to playing a formative role in the psychoanalytic culture in India.

About the author:

Sudhir Kakar is an Indian psychoanalyst, novelist and author in the fields of cultural psychology and the psychology of religion.

Table of contents

Preface vii
Introduction xv
CULTURE AND HEALING 1
Lord of the Spirit World 3
Empathy in Psychoanalysis and Spiritual Healing 36
PSYCHOANALYSIS AND CULTURE 55
Clinical Work and Cultural Imagination 57
Th e Maternal–Feminine in Indian Psychoanalysis 71
Culture in Psychoanalysis: A Personal Journey 84
EROTIC LOVE 95
Gandhi and Women 97
Lovers in the Dark 141
Indian Sexuality 159
PSYCHOBIOGRAPHY 183
Ramakrishna and the Mystical Experience 185
Childhood of a Spiritually Incorrect Guru—Osho 222
RELIGION AND PSYCHE 243
Religious Confl ict in the Modern World 245
Th e Resurgence of Imagination 259
CHILDHOOD AND IDENTITY 271
Mothers and Infants 273
Th e Hierarchical Man 339
Th e Indian Mind 354
Interview with Sudhir Kakar 372
About the Author 386
Bibliography 388