The Inner World: A Psychoanalytic Study of Childhood and Society in India

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Feelings, impulses, wishes, and fantasies - the dynamic content of the inner world - occupy the deepest recesses of the psyche. It is through introspection and empathy, essential to psychotherapy, that the outside observer can grasp the meaning of theinner world of an individual. First published in 1978, The Inner World is an inquiry into the development of Indian identity. It examines the network of social roles, traditional values, and customs with which the threads of Indian psychological development are interwoven and, in doing so, reveals important aspects of Indian society, myths, rituals, fables, and arts. Hailed by critics globally as the best application of psychoanalysis to Indian culture, this Oxford India Perennials edition of The Inner World includes a new Prologue situating the work in the contemporary scenario. Contents: Prologue Preface to the First Edition I. Introduction: Aims and Approach; Culture and Personality; Personal Word II. The Hindu World Image: The Theme of Fusion-Moksha; Life Task and Life Cycle-Dharma; Ideas of Time and Destiny III. Mothers and Infants: Psycho-social Matrix of Infancy: Feminine Identity in India; The 'Good Mother'; The 'Bad Mother'; Infancy and Ego: Origins of Identity in a Patriarchal Culture IV. Families and Children: Psycho-social Matrix of Childhood: The Extended Family; The Second Birth; Ontogeny of Homo Hierarchicus V. Tracings: The Inner World of Culture and History: Cult and Myths of Krishna; Shiva and Narcissus; The Revolutionary Yogi: Childhood of Swami Vivekananda VI. Conclusion: Childhoodand Social Change Appendix: The Child in Indian Tradition Afterword Notes and References Bibliography Index

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Sudhir Kakar is a psychoanalyst and writer who lives in Goa, India. His seventeen books of non-fiction and five of fiction include The Inner World, Culture and Psyche, Shamans, Mystics and Doctors, Tales of Love, Sex, and Danger (with John Munder Ross), The Analyst and the Mystic, The Colors of Violence, as also the novels The Ascetic of Desire, Ecstasy, and Mira and the Mahatma. His books have been translated into twenty languages around the world.