bose and kakar's - donau-universität krems
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Coexistence and Confluence of Intellectual Traditions: the Works of Sudhir Kakar
Dr. Christiane Hartnack
Danube University, Krems
Austria
Objective
To shed light on Kakar’s contributions
to psychology by placing these in
cultural, social and historical contexts
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Methodology
In order to sharpen our understanding of
Kakar’s contribution to psychology in a
globalizing world, I will use as a point of
reference the published works of
Girindrasekhar Bose – another eminent
Indian psychologist and psychoanalyst –
who predated Kakar by about 50 years.
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Why compare and contrast Bose and Kakar?
Their work in a colonial setting (Bose) and in a burgeoning global post-colonial environment (Kakar), reflects epochal differences.
Nonetheless, in their creative fusion of Hindu and European psychological methods and practises, Bose and Kakar show striking similarities.
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Outline
Bose’s and Kakar’s biographies, including:
• social and historical contexts
• therapeutic work and research
• major publications
• sources of their creativity
Bose’s and Kakar’s contributions to psychology
Differences and commonalities between Bose and Kakar
Kakar’s (and Bose’s) relevance for contemporary psychology
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Girindrasekhar Bose: 1887-1953
Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Girindrasekhar_Bose (June 10, 2012)
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Sudhir Kakar (born in 1938)
Source: Titlephoto, The Essental Sudhir Kakar, Oxford University Press, New Delhi, 2011
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Bose: Biographical information
Studied medicine and psychology at the University of Calcutta
Treated patients and practised psychoanalysis (1910 to about 1950)
Taught psychoanalysis at the University of Calcutta from 1917 onward
Became Professor of Psychology at the University of Calcutta in 1921
Corresponded with Sigmund Freud (1921 to 1937)
Founded the Indian Psychoanalytical Association in 1923
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Kakar: Biographical information
Studied engineering (Ahmedabad); economics (Mannheim, Vienna)
Postgraduate work in psychology at Harvard University (with Erik Erickson)
Psychoanalytic training at the Sigmund Freud Institute in Frankfurt
Practised psychoanalysis in New Delhi (1975-1990)
Researched and lectured at many universities, including McGill, Harvard,
Princeton, Chicago, Berlin, Vienna, Fontainebleau
Wrote numerous books and articles, several novels and his memoirs
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Bose’s social and historical context
Belonged to a well-to-do Bengali Hindu family (Varna: Kshatrya;
Jāti: writers and administrators)
Lived during the heyday of resistance against British colonial rule
Had — like most Bengalis of his social stratum — a strong sense of Indian identity
Showed little interest in the acceptance of his work outside India
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Kakar’s social and historical context
Born into a well-to-do family (Varna: Kshatrya, Jāti: administrators); experienced the Partititon of British India as a child
Due to post-colonial India’s economic isolation, he grew up in an epoch of idealization of Europe and North America (Indian „brain drain“)
Experienced India‘s economic development and the prospering of the Indian upper middle class after 1990
Witnessed Indian reactions to globalization (especially since 1998):
critical view of imported values, behaviors and ways of thinking
renewed emphasis on Hindu traditions
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Bose’s therapeutic work
Patients: Bhadralok (westernized middle- and upper-class Bengali men)
His focus was on dissolving blocked flows of psychic energy using:
• dream analysis
• his own therapeutic „see-saw“ method
• a deck chair (instead of a psychoanalytic couch)
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Kakar’s therapeutic work
Psychoanalytical practise in an upper-middle-
class district of New Delhi (1975 to 1990)
Classical psychoanalytical setting with a couch
Patients were foreigners and highly
westernized Indian men and women
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Bose’s research
Re: Freudian concepts
dreams
structure of wishes
Oedipus complex
Re: Hindu concepts and practises
practiced yoga
was interested in indigenous psychological knowledge and practices
with the guidance of a Pandit, self-experimented with his own inner world
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Kakar’s research
Multi-disciplinary research on:
• sexuality in India
• aspects of Hindu religion
• gender relations
• child-rearing
• Hindu-Muslim tensions
• folk tales and traditions of healing
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Bose’s major publications
Concept of Repression (1921) Calcutta: G. Bose, 1921
„The Free Association Method in Psycho-Analysis.“ Indian Journal of Psychology,
1 (1926), 187-99
Swapna [Dream]. Calcutta: Ram Kamal Singha, Bangiya Sahityaparishat, 1928
„The Psychological Outlook of Hindu Philosophy.“ Indian Journal of Psychology, 5
(1930), 119-46
„A New Theory of Mental Life.“ Indian Journal of Psychology, 8 (1933), 37-157
„Opposite Fantasies in the Release of Repression.“ Indian Journal of Psychology,
10 (1935), 29-41
„The Mechanism of Defiance.“ Indian Journal of Psychology, 20 (1945), 15-30
„The Genesis and Adjustment of the Oedipus Wish.“ Samiksa, 3 (1949), 222-40
„Analysis of Wish.“ Samiksa, 6 (1952), 1-11
„Yoga Sutras.“ Samiksa, 11 (1957), 44-63, 157-85, 217-37
.
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Kakar’s major non-fiction publications
The Inner World: A Psychoanalytic Study of Childhood and Society in India,
Delhi: Oxford University Press, 1978
Identity And Adulthood, Delhi: Oxford University Press, 1980
Shamans, Mystics, And Doctors, New York: A. Knopf, 1982
Intimate Relations, Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1990
The Colors Of Violence, Cultural Identities, Religion and Conflict, Delhi:
Viking, 1995
Culture And Psyche, Selected Essays, Delhi: Oxford University Press, 1996
The Indian Psyche, Delhi: Oxford University Press, 1996
The Essential Sudhir Kakar , Delhi: Oxford University Press, 2011
A Book of Memory, Penguin Viking, New Delhi, 2011
Sources of Bose’s creativity
Educated in European as well as Bengali Hindu
traditions; could apply both with ease
Developed the aura of a guru
Intellectual support from lively exchanges with his Adda
(discussion group consisting of men with leisure time)
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Sources of Kakar’s creativity
Due to his education and work in India, as well as in
Europe and North America, he has been able to bring
elements of these cultures into creative tension and at
times into fusion.
He offers insights into the inner world of Indian Hindus
and into Hindu world views, for which he finds a captive
audience in Europe and North America.
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Bose’s major contributions to psychology
Gained insights into the inner world of colonized upper-middle- class Bengali men (discovered their „wish to be female“)
Pointed out the importance of overcoming a „subject-object“ dichotomy through empathy
Emphasized cyclic flows and the importance of wishes
Revised Freud’s assumptions re the universality of his findings (especially with regard to gender issues and the Oedipus complex)
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Kakar’s major contributions to psychology
Combines anthropological findings, clinical vignettes,
excepts from mythology and folklore to bring out the
importance of cultural priming
Sheds light on mother-child relationships in traditional
Hindu middle and upper classes
Provides insights into issues of mysticism, sexuality
and communal violence in India
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Differences between Bose and Kakar
Bose grew up within a context of political and ideological resistance to colonial rule and wrote for Indian readers.
Kakar grew up with the allure of Europe and North America and
now writes primarily for a cosmopolitan readership.
Bose gained many insights by discussing his ideas in an Adda.
Kakar lives in rural Goa and relies on a virtual network.
Bose taught at the University of Calcutta for his entire career and practised psychoanalysis for more than 40 years.
Kakar often changed his institutional affiliation and stopped practising psychoanalysis to become a writer.
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Commonalities I: Bose and Kakar’s „Western“ orientation
Both applied to Indian patients a methodology that was
originally developed for „Viennese“ neuroses.
Bose as well as Kakar made revisions to Freudian concepts:
importance of the mother
(maternal) deities
the Oedipus complex
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Commonalities II: Bose and Kakar’s inclusion of Hindu traditions
Worldview that there are interactions between all that exists (principles of unity and empathy)
Persons are not seen as isolated individuals but within their relationships
Importance of relativizing and contextualizing (instead of reaching for absolutes)
Acceptance of ambiguities (instead of striving for one standpoint or synthesis)
High appreciation of feminine powers
Dynamic focus on flows (rather than on static structures or topographies)
Interest in yoga and other Indian methods of healing
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Kakar’s (and Bose’s) relevance for contemporary psychology
Indigenous cognitive traditions and the now universally employed European and North American psychological methodology and practice co-exist not only in India, but elsewhere.
Kakar – like Bose before him – provides a model for how to creatively combine these approaches.
Conclusion
Bose as well as Kakar have shown that the amalgamation (and
creative development) of universal and indigenous elements of
experience has the potential to enrich our understanding of the
„inner world“.
They have also investigated the relationship between human
beings and their place in the material and immaterial world
around them (the global ecosystem).
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Thank you for your attention
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