Description
Book SynopsisIn Psychoanalysis from the Indian Terroir, Manasi Kumar, Anup Dhar, and Anurag Mishra discuss the synergies and diachronic thought that is emblematic of the current psychoanalytic narrative in India and examine what psychoanalysis in India could become. The contributors to this edited collection connect problems around culture, family, traditions, and the burgeoning political changes in the Indian landscape in order to provide critical rejoinders to the maternal-feminine thematic in India's cultural psyche. Specifically, the contributors examine issues surrounding ethnic violence, therapists' gender and political identities, narratives of illness, and spiritual and traditional approaches to healing.
Trade ReviewThis homage for Sudhir Kakar is a must read for all those who are interested in the current state of cultural and clinical applications of psychoanalysis in India. -- Christiane Hartnack, University of Vienna and author of Psychoanalysis in Colonial India
This volume is a welcome addition to the burgeoning literature on what I have termed 'anthropological psychoanalysis'. Unshackled from the Eurocentric, phallocentric, and heuristically-colonizing 'psychoanalytic anthropology', the contributors to this book locate psychic development in its cultural matrix, forge true interdisciplinary links, and accord significance to the regional idiom in therapeutic discourse. Within the context of India, they cover wide-ranging topics that include the mother-child relationship, the evolution of identity, moral narcissism, yoga, misogyny, and the ever-challenging notion of a cultural unconscious. This is a deeply informative book about both India and psychoanalysis! -- Salman Akhtar, MD, Psychoanalytic Center of Philadelphia
Table of ContentsIntroduction to Psychoanalysis in the Indian Terroir by Manasi Kumar, Anup Dhar and Anurag Mishra Part I: Mothers, Therapists, and Matricide Chapter 1: When the Enthralled Mother Dreams: A Clinical and Cultural Composition by Amrita Narayanan Chapter 2: Devi Possession at the Intersections of Religion, Culture and Psychoanalysis by Sabah Siddiqui and Bhargavi Davar Chapter 3: Of Mothers and Therapists: Dreaming the Indian Infant by Urvashi Agarwal Chapter 4: Myth, Misogyny and Matricide by Nilofer Kaul Chapter 5: Sita Through the Time Warp: On the Ticklish Relationship Between Renunciation and Moral Narcissism in the Lives of Young Indian Women by Shifa Haq Part II: Faith, Religion and Violence Chapter 6: Terrors to Expansions: A Journey Mediated Through Faith by Shalini Masih Chapter 7: Only Hindu also the Patient, Only Muslim also the Therapist: Recovering the ‘Historical Other’ by Zehra Mehdi Chapter 8: Disaster Diaries: Riots Affected Children in Ahmedabad and Hyderabad by Atreyee Sen and Manasi Kumar Part III: Cultural Identity and Indian Imagination Chapter 9: Two Cultures? : Frontiers of Faith in Yoga and Psychoanalysis by Ajeet Mathur Chapter 10: Psychoanalysis, Culture and the Cultural Unconscious by Sudhir Kakar Chapter 11: Imagining The Real: An Essay on Sudhir Kakar’s “Culture and Psyche”: A Personal Journey by Alfred Margulies Chapter 12: As Psychoanalysis Travels: Mansi Kumar, Anup Dhar, Anurag Mishra in conversation with Sudhir Kakar by Manasi Kumar, Anup Dhar, Anurag Mishra, and Sudhir Kakar Chapter 13 Genealogies of Aboriginalization by Anup Dhar
