What type of study is this?

This is a Literature Review study.

September 5, 2025Open Access

Sudhir Kakar on mysticism, psychoanalysis, and culture

Key Points

Kakar's contributions enrich the understanding of mysticism through psychoanalysis and cultural studies.
The essay defines mysticism and compares it against psychoanalytic theories, providing a clear context.
It outlines Freud's analysis of the oceanic feeling, linking it with subsequent psychoanalytic models of mysticism.
Kakar's work is positioned within ongoing debates in psychoanalysis, revealing its relevance to contemporary mysticism studies.

Abstract

This essay is designed to illumine Sudhir Kakar’s contributions with regard to psychoanalytic theorizing about mysticism and culture. It proceeds in five interrelated parts: (1) presents a broad definitional and comparative context with respect to the academically contested term “mysticism”; (2) explores the initial entry of the psychoanalytic engagement with mysticism (i.e., Freud’s famous analysis of the oceanic feeling); (3) describes the psychoanalytic models (classic, adaptive and transformational) of mysticism which developed out of and after Freud; (4) places Kakar within this development, unpacking his specific contributions, advances and debates with other reigning psychoanalysts; (5) discusses Kakar’s contributions and indeed psychoanalysis as a whole relative to the wider, contemporary academic study of mysticism.

Read Full Paperexternally

Demander à l'IA

Bookmark

View Full Paper