Freud's Mahabharata

by Alf Hiltebeitel

Though Freud never overtly refers to the Mahthe companion volume to Freud's India, Alf Hiltebeitel offers what he calls a "pointillist introduction" to a new theory about the Mah

328 pages, Hardcover

Published September 3, 2018

Reviews

[s]

Idiosyncratic but interesting theory about the composition of the Mahabharata and the role of the composers' unconscious in that process, approaches the same 'political unconscious' kind of logic as Jameson without getting there. A bit too self-indulgent, tenured academic's career retrospective that sacrifices structural logic for the sake of erudite free association. Many interesting points and an especially good part in the middle about the narrative diversity of folk theater traditions, including a striking and moving account of spirit possession in older village women during performances of the humiliation and disrobing of Draupadi. Slightly baffling thread throughout insisting on basic elements of the epic (like the concept of a divine plan) being borrowed from the Greeks.