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The Inner World: A Psycho-analytic Study of Childhood and Society in India
In this fascinating psycho-analytic study of Hindu childhood and society, Sudhir Kakar uses anthropological evidence, clinical data, mythology and folklore to open the door on to the daily lives of the Hindu family and the shadowy world of collective fantasy. It explores the developmental significance of Hindu infancy and childhood, and its influence on identity formation. It will be of interest to all who are interested in Indian society and its myths, rituals, fables and arts, but will be particularly rewarding for anyone concerned with the psychological study of societies and the relevance and validity of psycho-analytic concepts in Indian culture and society.
250 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1981
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About the author
Sudhir Kakar
56 books84 followersSudhir Kakar is a psychoanalyst and writer who lives in Goa, India.
Kakar took his Bachelor’s degree in mechanical engineering from Gujarat University, his Master’s degree (Diplom-Kaufmann) in business economics from Mannheim in Germany and his doctorate in economics from Vienna before beginning his training in psychoanalysis at the Sigmund-Freud Institute in Frankfurt, Germany in 1971. Between 1966 and 1971, Sudhir Kakar was a Lecturer in General Education at Harvard University, Research Associate at Harvard Business School and Professor of Organizational Behaviour at Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad.
After returning to India in 1975 , Dr. Kakar set up a practice as a psychoanalyst in Delhi where he was also the Head of Department of Humanities and Social Sciences at Indian Institute of Technology. He has been 40th Anniversary Senior Fellow at the Centre for Study of World Religions at Harvard (2001-02), a visiting professor at the universities of Chicago (1989-93), McGill (1976-77), Melbourne (1981), Hawaii (1998) and Vienna (1974-75), INSEAD, France (1994-2013). He has been a Fellow at the Institute of Advanced Study, Princeton, Wissenschaftskolleg (Institute of Advanced Study), Berlin, Centre for Advanced Study of Humanities, University of Cologne and is Honorary Professor, GITAM University, Visakhapatnam.
A leading figure in the fields of cultural psychology and the psychology of religion, as well as a novelist, Dr. Kakar’s person and work have been profiled in The New York Times, Le Monde, Frankfurter Allgemeine, Neue Zuricher Zeitung, Die Zeit and Le Nouvel Observateur, which listed him as one of the world's 25 major thinkers while the German weekly Die Zeit portrayed Sudhir Kakar as one of the 21 important thinkers for the 21st century. Dr. Kakar's many honors include the Kardiner Award of Columbia University, Boyer Prize for Psychological Anthropology of the American Anthropological Association, Germany ’s Goethe Medal, Rockefeller Residency, McArthur Fellowship Bhabha, Nehru and ICSSR National Fellowships and Distinguished Service Award of Indo-American Psychiatric Association. He is a member of the New York Academy of Sciences, the Board of Sigmund Freud Archives in the Library of Congress, Washington and the Academie Universelle des Culture, France. In February 2012, he was conferred the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany, the country's highest civilian order.
Sudhir Kakar’s twenty books of non-fiction and six of fiction, include The Inner World (now in its 16th printing since its first publication in 1978), Shamans, Mystics and Doctors , (with J.M. Ross ) Tales of Love, Sex and Danger,Intimate Relations, The Analyst and the Mystic, The Colors of Violence,Culture and Psyche, (with K.Kakar) The Indians: Portrait of a People, (with Wendy Doniger), a new translation of the Kamasutra for Oxford world Classics, Mad and Divine: Spirit and Psyche in the Modern world and Young Tagore: The makings of a genius. His fifth novel, The Devil Take Love will be published by Penguin-Viking in August 2015.
Sudhir with Katharina Poggendorf Kakar
Sudhir Kakar is married to Katharina, a writer and a scholar of comparative religions and artist. He has two children, a son Rahul who is in financial services, and a daughter Shveta, a lawyer, both in New York.
Kakar took his Bachelor’s degree in mechanical engineering from Gujarat University, his Master’s degree (Diplom-Kaufmann) in business economics from Mannheim in Germany and his doctorate in economics from Vienna before beginning his training in psychoanalysis at the Sigmund-Freud Institute in Frankfurt, Germany in 1971. Between 1966 and 1971, Sudhir Kakar was a Lecturer in General Education at Harvard University, Research Associate at Harvard Business School and Professor of Organizational Behaviour at Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad.
After returning to India in 1975 , Dr. Kakar set up a practice as a psychoanalyst in Delhi where he was also the Head of Department of Humanities and Social Sciences at Indian Institute of Technology. He has been 40th Anniversary Senior Fellow at the Centre for Study of World Religions at Harvard (2001-02), a visiting professor at the universities of Chicago (1989-93), McGill (1976-77), Melbourne (1981), Hawaii (1998) and Vienna (1974-75), INSEAD, France (1994-2013). He has been a Fellow at the Institute of Advanced Study, Princeton, Wissenschaftskolleg (Institute of Advanced Study), Berlin, Centre for Advanced Study of Humanities, University of Cologne and is Honorary Professor, GITAM University, Visakhapatnam.
A leading figure in the fields of cultural psychology and the psychology of religion, as well as a novelist, Dr. Kakar’s person and work have been profiled in The New York Times, Le Monde, Frankfurter Allgemeine, Neue Zuricher Zeitung, Die Zeit and Le Nouvel Observateur, which listed him as one of the world's 25 major thinkers while the German weekly Die Zeit portrayed Sudhir Kakar as one of the 21 important thinkers for the 21st century. Dr. Kakar's many honors include the Kardiner Award of Columbia University, Boyer Prize for Psychological Anthropology of the American Anthropological Association, Germany ’s Goethe Medal, Rockefeller Residency, McArthur Fellowship Bhabha, Nehru and ICSSR National Fellowships and Distinguished Service Award of Indo-American Psychiatric Association. He is a member of the New York Academy of Sciences, the Board of Sigmund Freud Archives in the Library of Congress, Washington and the Academie Universelle des Culture, France. In February 2012, he was conferred the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany, the country's highest civilian order.
Sudhir Kakar’s twenty books of non-fiction and six of fiction, include The Inner World (now in its 16th printing since its first publication in 1978), Shamans, Mystics and Doctors , (with J.M. Ross ) Tales of Love, Sex and Danger,Intimate Relations, The Analyst and the Mystic, The Colors of Violence,Culture and Psyche, (with K.Kakar) The Indians: Portrait of a People, (with Wendy Doniger), a new translation of the Kamasutra for Oxford world Classics, Mad and Divine: Spirit and Psyche in the Modern world and Young Tagore: The makings of a genius. His fifth novel, The Devil Take Love will be published by Penguin-Viking in August 2015.
Sudhir with Katharina Poggendorf Kakar
Sudhir Kakar is married to Katharina, a writer and a scholar of comparative religions and artist. He has two children, a son Rahul who is in financial services, and a daughter Shveta, a lawyer, both in New York.
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Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews
August 19, 2024
To read Kakar is a conflicting experience for almost every Indian, but even more so, for women. There is a certain hostility I personally experience with psychoanalysis in general, and by extension to Kakar's work. Especially because it seems like an audacity for a man to write about Indian women and their deep, unconscious, inherent desires - one can't help but question the validity of any remarks made therein especially by a male psychoanalyst.
And yet, begrudgingly, I end up conceding, in many instances when Kakar brings out the identity crisis Indians face, and the things they try to achieve, or the standards they idealise. Inner world touches on many of these ideals. Despite being written in 1980s, a significant portion rings true even after globalisation and the onslaught it has brought. That Kakar has been able to pierce through multiple layers to find some consistent narratives in Indian psyche is undeniable. But whether the explanations and hypothesis he builds up from the same stand their ground today is, and rightfully so, contestable.
Nevertheless, this often uncomfortable, slightly exaggerated and generalised account matters, because it provides the Indian reader a good place to start from, to find their own answers, influences and ideals that were particularly significant for their inner world.
And yet, begrudgingly, I end up conceding, in many instances when Kakar brings out the identity crisis Indians face, and the things they try to achieve, or the standards they idealise. Inner world touches on many of these ideals. Despite being written in 1980s, a significant portion rings true even after globalisation and the onslaught it has brought. That Kakar has been able to pierce through multiple layers to find some consistent narratives in Indian psyche is undeniable. But whether the explanations and hypothesis he builds up from the same stand their ground today is, and rightfully so, contestable.
Nevertheless, this often uncomfortable, slightly exaggerated and generalised account matters, because it provides the Indian reader a good place to start from, to find their own answers, influences and ideals that were particularly significant for their inner world.
June 28, 2007
A Book that every intelligent Indian should read.
December 8, 2010
Fantastic for psycho-cultural research on Indian populations. The chapters on mothers and children were absolutely crucial to my own fieldwork.
August 18, 2017
The comparison of the Western and Hindu world views, the attitude and approach to childhood in both traditions, and the eyeopening insights and psychoanalytic reinterpretations of popular myths and cultural practices are the highlights of the book. The author is engaging, the technical stuff is interspersed with stories and examples, and in short, there is no dull moment in the entire reading.
February 4, 2012
Not for a layman, but interesting book on Hindu anthropology. Sudhir kakar try to explain how the childhood of a hindu child is shaped or in other word of an Indian.
April 22, 2020
Title of the book looks very fancy but it is about Social Psychology actually. It covers various aspects of Indian Hindu Society like mythology, anthropology, societal system, culture, parenting, motherhood, childhood and psychology development of a person throughout. It felt quite heavy to understand various words but various examples from mythology made it a light read. More than Psychology, I found this book inclined towards Hindu Mythology. It was quite informative in above context.
August 29, 2025
His study of vivekanand is especially important today
June 9, 2017
nice
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
September 16, 2011
rather than a psychoanalytic study of how Indian childhood shapes a hindu's social interactions, I would say this book is about the Hindu anthropology. hindus who were brought up in a culturally conservative households would, by reading this book, understand why they are the way they are. Did Mythology influence culture? or was it culture that created mythology? was mythology an interpretation of the collective fantasies and fears of the hindu society? do our grandmothers unknowingly fool us into a socio-cultural trap when they narrate to us the various stories of gods and demons? this book tries to answer these questions. Never have i read such a book which shocks and makes me say aloud WTF??? truly a class apart.
May 26, 2017
Excellent insight into Indianess
Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews