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New Books in Psychoanalysis
Amrita Narayanan, "Women's Sexuality and Modern India: In a Rapture of Distress" (Oxford UP, 2022)
Jan 18, 2025
Amrita Narayanan, a clinical psychologist and psychoanalyst, delves into the intricate dynamics of women's sexuality in modern India. She discusses the importance of understanding sexual agency beyond societal suffering and cultural narratives. The conversation highlights the emotional complexities faced by women, particularly the interplay of personal desires and communal pressures. Narayanan also examines father-daughter relationships, the psychological impact of losing sexual autonomy, and the paradoxes of pleasure and renunciation in women's experiences.
55:46
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Quick takeaways
- The book critiques the predominance of sympathy in narratives around women's suffering, which risks reducing their identities to mere victims rather than recognizing their sexual agency.
- Amrita Narayanan emphasizes the critical role of father-daughter relationships in shaping women's sense of independence and healthy sexual identity amidst cultural expectations.
Deep dives
The Evolution of Women's Sexuality in Modern India
The book examines how women's sexuality has been underexplored and unarticulated in modern Indian society, particularly due to the absence of a sexual revolution. It discusses three key works of the author, which aim to articulate the nuances of middle-class Indian women's sexual experiences through different lenses; fiction, anthologies, and psychoanalytic studies. The latest work focuses on 12 women's self-narrated sexual histories in the context of post-colonial India from independence in 1947 to the economic liberalization in 1992. It highlights how these historical and cultural factors contributed to the patriarchal control of women's sexuality, shaping their psychological well-being and sexual agency.
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