The Analyst and the Mystic

The Analyst and the Mystic PDF Author: Sudhir Kakar
Publisher: University of Chicago Press
ISBN: 0226422836
Category : Psychology
Languages : en
Pages : 96

Get Book Here

Book Description
Kakar goes beyond the traditional psychoanalytic interpretation of Ramakrishna's mystical visions and practices. He clarifies their contribution to the psychic transformation of a mystic and offers fresh insight into the relation between sexuality and ecstatic mysticism. Through a comparison of the healing techniques of the mystical guru and those of the analyst, Kakar highlights the difference in their healing objectives and reveals the positive psychological aspects of the religious experience.

The Analyst and the Mystic

The Analyst and the Mystic PDF Author: Sudhir Kakar
Publisher: University of Chicago Press
ISBN: 0226422836
Category : Psychology
Languages : en
Pages : 96

Get Book Here

Book Description
Kakar goes beyond the traditional psychoanalytic interpretation of Ramakrishna's mystical visions and practices. He clarifies their contribution to the psychic transformation of a mystic and offers fresh insight into the relation between sexuality and ecstatic mysticism. Through a comparison of the healing techniques of the mystical guru and those of the analyst, Kakar highlights the difference in their healing objectives and reveals the positive psychological aspects of the religious experience.

Mad and Divine

Mad and Divine PDF Author: Sudhir Kakar
Publisher: University of Chicago Press
ISBN: 0226422879
Category : Psychology
Languages : en
Pages : 188

Get Book Here

Book Description
Sudhir Kakar, India’s foremost practitioner of psychoanalysis, has focused his career on infusing this preeminently Western discipline with ideas and views from the East. In Mad and Divine, he takes on the separation of the spirit and the body favored by psychoanalysts, cautioning that a single-minded focus on the physical denies a person’s wholeness. Similarly, Kakar argues, to focus on the spirit alone is to hold in contempt the body that makes us human. Mad and Divine looks at the interplay between spirit and psyche and the moments of creativity and transformation that occur when the spirit overcomes desire and narcissism. Kakar examines this relationship in religious rituals and healing traditions— both Eastern and Western—as well as in the lives of some extraordinary men: the mystic and guru Rajneesh, Gandhi, and the Buddhist saint Drukpa Kunley. Enriched with a novelist’s felicity of language and an analyst’s piercing insights and startling interpretations, Mad and Divine is a valuable addition to the literature on the integration of the spirit and psyche in the evolving psychology of the individual.

Shamans, Mystics, and Doctors

Shamans, Mystics, and Doctors PDF Author: Sudhir Kakar
Publisher: Knopf
ISBN: 0307831795
Category : Body, Mind & Spirit
Languages : en
Pages : 393

Get Book Here

Book Description
Shamans, Mystics and Doctors is a detailed and thoroughly fascinating account of the many ways in which the ancient healing traditions of India—embodied in the rituals of shamans, the teachings of gurus and the precepts of the school of medicine known as Ayurveda—diagnose and treat emotional disorder. Drawing on three years of intensive fieldwork and his own psychoanalytic training and experience, Sudhir Kakar takes us into a world of Islamic mosques and Hindu temples, of assembled multitudes, and dingy, out-of-the-way consultation rooms… a world where patients and healers blame evil spirits for emotional disturbances… where dreams and symptoms that would be familiar to Freud are interpreted in terms of a myriad of deities and legends… where trance-like “dissociation states” are induced to bring out and resolve the conflicts of repressed anger, lust and envy… where proper grooming, diet, exercise and conduct are (and have been for centuries) seen as essential to the preservation of a healthy mind and body. As he witnesses the practitioners and their patients, as he elucidates the therapeutic systems on which their encounters are based, as he contrasts his own Western training and biases with evidence of his eyes (and the sympathies of his heart), Kakar reveals the universal concerns of these individuals and their admittedly foreign cultures—people we can recognize and feel for, people (like their Western counterparts) trying to find some balance between the pressures and rewards of the external world and the fantasies and desires of the internal. This is a major work of cultural interpretation, a book that challenges (and should enhance) our understanding of therapy, mental health and individual freedom.

Shamans, Mystics and Doctors

Shamans, Mystics and Doctors PDF Author: Sudhir Kakar
Publisher: University of Chicago Press
ISBN: 0226422798
Category : Body, Mind & Spirit
Languages : en
Pages : 317

Get Book Here

Book Description
Sudhir Kakar, a psychoanalyst and scholar, brilliantly illuminates the ancient healing traditions of India embodied in the rituals of shamans, the teachings of gurus, and the precepts of the school of medicine known as Ayurveda. "With extraordinary sympathy, open-mindedness, and insight Sudhir Kakar has drawn from both his Eastern and Western backgrounds to show how the gulf that divides native healer from Western psychiatrist can be spanned."—Rosemary Dinnage, New York Review of Books "Each chapter describes the geographical and cultural context within which the healers work, their unique approach to healing mental illness, and . . . the philosophical and religious underpinnings of their theories compared with psychoanalytical theory."—Choice

Psychoanalysis, Mysticism and the Problem of Epistemology

Psychoanalysis, Mysticism and the Problem of Epistemology PDF Author: Alice Bar Nes
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1000435768
Category : Psychology
Languages : en
Pages : 182

Get Book Here

Book Description
This book presents key psychoanalytic theories from a fresh perspective: that of the mystical element. The author explores the depth-structure of central assumptions in psychoanalytic theory to uncover the mystical core of conventional analytic thinking. Exploring authors from Freud and Ferenczi, through Bion and Winnicott, to contemporary voices such as Ogden, Bollas and Eigen, the book shows that psychoanalysis has always operated on the assumption of psychic overlap, a "soul-to-soul" contact, between patient and analyst. Surprisingly, the book shows how this "magical" facet goes hand in hand with a pragmatic worldview that explores the epistemological complexities of psychoanalysis in search of a way to join the subjective, even the mystical, with the practical aim of serving as a validated mental health discipline. This is accomplished through an interdisciplinary and intertextual encounter between psychoanalysis and the innovative pairing of William James’ pragmatic philosophy and Martin Buber’s dialogic thought. The author's paradoxical stance surrounding the nature and role of psychoanalysis and its mystical facet resonate the great challenge embedded in Winnicott's insistence on tolerating paradox and Bion's demand to respect all parts of the (psychoanalytic) truth, in this case, the practical and mundane alongside the mystical and magical. The book’s broad, interdisciplinary outlook will captivate both psychoanalysts and psychoanalytic therapists as well as scholars of philosophy.

Ecstasy

Ecstasy PDF Author: Sudhir Kakar
Publisher: Abrams
ISBN: 1468307770
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 150

Get Book Here

Book Description
Ram Das Baba, as his devotees call him, is the son of a devout Brahmin family. He spends a lifetime seeking spiritual knowledge and his journey is filled with illuminating visions, severe tribulations, and an unwavering faith. His destiny as a highly evolved Sadhu is fulfilled through ordeals of monastic bliss, tantric awakening, madness, and transexuality. But as his life nears its end he meets a young man who belongs to a very different India and a profound relationship develops.

Reimagining God and Religion

Reimagining God and Religion PDF Author: Jerry R. Wright
Publisher: Chiron Publications
ISBN: 1630514977
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 302

Get Book Here

Book Description
With the necessary demise and death of antique cosmologies and traditional religious paradigms dependent on external deities and devils, the modern religious challenge involves two simultaneous sacred endeavors: to eulogize, bury, and grieve the theistic and monotheistic god-images and the religions dependent on them; and, secondly, to bring fresh imagination to the meanings of god and religion, which will satisfy both the modern mind and ancient soul. Drawing on the insights of Jungian or analytical psychology, Dr. Wright offers depth psychological analysis of our contemporary religious and political dilemmas, as well as invites readers to be midwives for the emerging religious myth that many believe to be on our collective horizon -- a myth that will be more inclusive, intellectually and scientifically honest, and soul satisfying. The invitation is made urgent by his psychological conclusion: As long as our deities and devils are perceived to be beyond the physical domain and outside the human psyche, our species will continue to do great harm to each other and to our global nest. Combining personal testament and psychological commentary, the author explores heretofore taboo topics and reframes many traditional theological and Christological dogmas, making them more relevant to religious and non-religious alike. Jerry R. Wright, D.Min is a Jungian analyst in private practice in Flat Rock, North Carolina, and a training analyst with the Inter-Regional Society of Jungian Analysts. An experienced conference and retreat leader, he has led pilgrimages to sacred sites in Iona, Scotland, Ireland, Peru, and India. Reimagining God and Religion continues his primary interest in bringing the insights of Jungian or analytical psychology to experiences deemed religious or spiritual. This interest inspired Dr. Wright’s doctoral dissertation, Symbols for the Christ in the Gospel of John and the Archetypal Self in the Psychology of C.G. Jung, and his Jungian thesis, Archetypal Thin Places: Experiencing The Numinosum.

Mysticism

Mysticism PDF Author:
Publisher: BRILL
ISBN: 9004494723
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 340

Get Book Here

Book Description
Although very different, and coming from a range of academic backgrounds, the contributors are nevertheless united in their attempts to understand more about mysticism, from a perspective that puts the human being in the center.

Mystic Wind

Mystic Wind PDF Author: James Barretto
Publisher: Oceanview Publishing
ISBN: 1608094979
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 385

Get Book Here

Book Description
National Indie Excellence Award Winner for Legal Thriller American Fiction Award Winner for Legal Thriller 2022 American Fiction Award Winner for Legal Thriller The last remaining fragment of truth—hidden in the mire of the Mystic Creek Boston star-prosecutor-turned-corporate-attorney Jack Marino has risen fast and far from his upbringing in the Mystic housing projects. But after he's savagely beaten in retaliation for his work as head of the District Attorney's Urban Gang Unit, he's fired because his powerful boss is running for governor and fears the beating may have shaken Jack's formidable confidence. Jack lands a plush suite at his father-in-law's mega law firm, making big money practicing corporate law. Although he seemingly has everything—money, privilege, and an heiress for a wife, what he doesn't have is his own self-respect. When he is given a chance to get back into criminal law—this time as defense counsel in a capital murder case—he finally feels alive again. But to save his client from death row, he'll face a criminal network far more organized and powerful than he could have imagined. The case will take Jack back to the projects he thought he'd escaped. He'll risk personal and professional ruin, and ultimately his very life, to fight the corrupt forces determined to see his client go down—forces that may have already given absolute immunity to the real killer. Perfect for fans of John Grisham and Scott Turow

Teaching Mysticism

Teaching Mysticism PDF Author: William B. Parsons
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 0199751196
Category : Body, Mind & Spirit
Languages : en
Pages : 321

Get Book Here

Book Description
The term ''mysticism'' has never been consistently defined or employed, either in religious traditions or in academic discourse. The essays in this volume offer ways of defining what mysticism is, as well as methods for grappling with its complexity in a classroom.This volume addresses the diverse literature surrounding mysticism in four interrelated parts. The first part includes essays on the tradition and context of mysticism, devoted to drawing out and examining the mystical element in many religious traditions. The second part engages traditions and religio-cultural strands in which ''mysticism'' is linked to other terms, such as shamanism, esotericism, and Gnosticism. The volume's third part focuses on methodological strategies for defining ''mysticism,'' with respect to varying social spaces. The final essays show how contemporary social issues and movements have impacted the meaning, study, and pedagogy of mysticism.Teaching Mysticism presents pedagogical reflections on how best to communicate mysticism from a variety of institutional spaces. It surveys the broad range of meanings of mysticism, its utilization in the traditions, the theories and methods that have been used to understand it, and provides critical insight into the resulting controversies.