New Books in Psychology

Sudhir Kakar, "The Indian Jungle: Psychoanalysis and Non-Western Civilizations" (Karnac, 2024)

Aug 17, 2024

Dhwani Shah, a psychiatrist and psychoanalyst, and Ashis Roy, a psychoanalyst known for his work on Hindu-Muslim relationships, delve into Sudhir Kakar's final book. They discuss how psychoanalysis has historically been Western-centric while emphasizing the importance of incorporating non-Western perspectives. Themes of cultural identity in therapy, maternal influence in Indian culture, and the interplay between mysticism and psychoanalysis emerge, revealing the transformative power of cultural roots and the complexities of identity.

55:35

Episode guests

Ashis Roy

Dhwani Shah

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Episode notes

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Quick takeaways

Sudhir Kakar emphasizes the necessity of adapting psychoanalysis to local cultures, challenging Western-centric paradigms in understanding mental health.

Kakar's exploration of maternal enthrallment highlights the complexity of mother-son relationships in India, influencing male identity development significantly.

Deep dives

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Intro

2min

Psychoanalysis and Identity in Indian Contexts

17min

Navigating Cultural Identity in Therapy

6min

Navigating Identity in Indian Culture

14min

Exploring the Intersection of Mysticism and Psychoanalysis

5min

Mysticism and Psychoanalysis: A Cross-Cultural Exploration

9min

In this podcast, Ashis Roy (Psychoanalyst (IPA) and author of the recently published book Intimacy in Alienation: A Psychoanalytic Study of Hindu-Muslim Relationships (Yoda Press, 2024) is in conversation with Dhwani Shah, MD. Shah is a psychiatrist and psychoanalyst currently practicing in Princeton, NJ. He is a clinical associate faculty member in the Department of Psychiatry at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine and a Supervising Analyst and instructor at the Psychoanalytic Center of Philadelphia.

Together they engage with Late Sudhir Kakar´s last book the Indian Jungle: Psychoanalysis and Non-Western Civilizations (Karnac, 2024). Shah reflects on Kakar´s contributions to psychoanalysis and on some of the pillars in Kakar´s writing.

About the Indian Jungle

For more than a century, the cultural imagination of psychoanalysis has been assumed and largely continues to be assumed as Western. Although the terroirs of psychoanalysis in South America, France, Italy, England, the United States, and so on have important differences, they all share a strong family resemblance which distinguishes them clearly from the cultural imaginations of Indian, Chinese, Korean, Japanese and other non-Western terroirs.

Fundamental ideas about human relationships, family, marriage, and gender often remain unexamined and pervade the analytic space as if they are universally valid. Thus, ideas that are historically and culturally only true of and limited to modern Western, specifically European and North American middle-class experience, have been incorporated unquestioningly into psychoanalytic thought.

In the intellectual climate of our times, with the rise of relativism in the human sciences and politically with the advent of decolonization, the cultural and historical transcendence of psychoanalytic thought can no longer be taken for granted. Insights from clinical work embedded in the cultural imaginations of non-Western civilizations could help psychoanalysis rethink some of its theories of the human psyche, extending these to cover a fuller range of human experience. These cultural imaginations are an invaluable resource for the move away from a universal psychoanalysis to a more global one that remains aware of but is not limited by its origins in the modern West. This book of essays aims to be a step in that journey, of altering the self-perception of psychoanalysis from ‘one size fits all’ into a more nuanced enterprise that reflects and is enriched by cultural particularities.

The perfect book for psychoanalysts, psychotherapists, cultural psychologists, anthropologists, students of South Asian, cultural, and post-colonial studies, and anyone interested in the current and possible future shape of psychoanalytic thought.

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