Sudhir Kakar

Sudhir Kakar (born 1938 in Nainital, Uttarakhand, India) is a Freudian psychoanalyst and writer. He studied in Gujarat, Mannheim, Frankfurt am Main and Vienna. Kakar received a Bachelor in Mechanical Engineering, a Master’s degree (Diplom-Kaufmann) in business economics and became Doctor of Economics. [cite web |url=http://www.taz.de/index.php?id=archivseite&dig=2006/10/07/a0198 |title=Das System der Klaglosigkeit |accessdate=2008-01-01 |author=Renée Zucker |date=2006-10-07 |publisher=die tageszeitung] He begun his training in psychoanalysis at the Sigmund-Freud Institute in Frankfurt, Germany in 1971.

Kakar on Ramakrishna

Kakar’s 1991 "The Analyst and the Mystic" deals with Ramakrishna. [In The Indian Psyche, 125-188. 1996 New Delhi: Viking by Penguin. Reprint of 1991 book.] Gerald James Larson, writing in the "Journal of the American Academy of Religion", described it thus::Indeed, Sudhir Kakar...indicates that there would be little doubt that from a psychoanalytic point of view Ramakrishna could be diagnosed as a secondary transsexual.Kakar sought a meta-psychological non-pathological explanation that connects Ramakrishna's mystical realization with creativity. Kakar also argues that culturally relative concepts of eroticism and gender have contributed to the Western difficulty in comprehending Ramakrishna.Kakar, Sudhir, "The Analyst and the Mystic", (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1991), p.34]

In Kakar’s 2003 novel, "Ecstasy", an aspiring "sadhu" endures sexual molestation as a child, and has a feminine appearance and ambiguous sexuality. According to the author, the characters were based on Ramakrishna and Vivekananda. ["The characters are modelled on Ramakrishna and Vivekananda." [http://www.rediff.com/news/2001/apr/19inter.htm The Rediff Interview/Psychoanalyst Sudhir Kakar] Date accessed: 1 April 2008]

Books

Sudhir Kakar has sixteen non-fiction and four fiction works to his credit:

Non-fiction
*Mad and Divine: Spirit and Psyche in the Modern World
*Inner World: A Psycho-Analytic Study of Childhood and Society in India: Psychoanalytic Study of Childhood and Society in India, OUP India, 2Rev Ed (14th October 1982) ISBN 0195613058 (10), ISBN 978-0195613056 (13)
*Shamans, Mystics, And Doctors
*Tales Of Love, Sex And Danger
*Intimate Relations
*The Colors Of Violence
*The Indians
*Kamasutra
*Fredrick Taylor
*Understanding Organizational Behavior
*Conflict And Choice
*Identity And Adulthood
*The Analyst And The Mystic
*La Folle Et Le Saint
*Culture And Psyche
*The Indian Psyche
*The Essential Writings Of Sudhir Kakar

Fiction
*The Ascetic Of Desire
*Indian Love Stories
*Ecstasy
*Mira And The Mahatma

Bibliography

*"Die Inder. Porträt einer Gesellschaft" (2006)

Further reading

*T.G. Vaidyanathan & Jeffrey J. Kripal (editors): VISHNU ON FREUD'S DESK : A Reader in Psychoanalysis and Hinduism, Oxford University Press, ISBN 0195658353, Paperback (Edition: 2003) [ [http://www.exoticindiaart.com/book/details/IDG634/ Table of Contents] ]

References

See also

*Girindrasekhar Bose

External links

* [http://www.sudhirkakar.com/sudhir.htm Official Website]
* [http://www.asiasource.org/arts/kakar.cfm Asia Source interview]
* [http://www.complete-review.com/reviews/kakars/ecstasy.htm#ours Review of "Ecstacy"]

Persondata
NAME= Kakar, Sudhir
ALTERNATIVE NAMES=
SHORT DESCRIPTION= Indian psychologist and writer
DATE OF BIRTH= 1938
PLACE OF BIRTH= Nainital, India
DATE OF DEATH=
PLACE OF DEATH=