Bose and Kakar's - Donau-Universität Krems

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

Dr. Christiane Hartnack 2

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.



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.


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


Girindrasekhar Bose: 1887-1953

Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Girindrasekhar_Bose (June 10, 2012)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Girindrasekhar_Bose


Sudhir Kakar (born in 1938)

Source: Titlephoto, The Essental Sudhir Kakar, Oxford University Press, New Delhi, 2011


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


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


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


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


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)


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


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


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


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

.


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)


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.



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)


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


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.


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


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


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).



Thank you for your attention

Please feel free to contact:

[email protected]

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