Remembering the work of psychoanalyst and writer Sudhir Kakar
Live MintMany years ago in a café in Paris, psychoanalyst Sudhir Kakar and novelist Namita Gokhale spent hours talking about mysticism and the Bhutanese-Tibetan monk Drukpa Kunley. The author Daniel J. Meckel, an associate professor of philosophy and religious studies at the St. Mary’s College of Maryland writes that with the book, “Kakar once again brings an extraordinary depth of psychoanalytic and Indian sensibilities to bear on topics of sainthood, religious ritual, and healing in India, as well as the profession of psychoanalysis itself.” This sense—that Kakar was one of the few intellectuals who managed to forge a new, original, and Indian path in the field of psychoanalysis—strongly colours the memories of most who remember him today. “He was a rare intellectual,” says Ramin Jahanbegloo, Iranian-born philosopher and friend of Kakar’s for over 20 years. A series of his conversations and interviews with Kakar, on topics ranging from the Partition, secularism, tradition and culture, and several iconic leaders like Gandhi or Nehru, were published in the 2009 book India Analysed.
History of this topic
Discover Related
