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Rabindrath Tagore’s move from a severe criticism of Freud, towards an appreciation of
psychoanalysis, especially when applied to literature 306 but reveals the underlying tensions
and clashes of culture (Biswas 2003).
Distinctive trends in psychoanalysis and psychotherapy
Firstly, in the early days of psychoanalysis there was an uncritical acceptance of
psychoanalytic theory as the dominant discourse that interpreted cultural, social, religious
and mythological understanding. Any references to religion or mythology in clinical cases
were viewed as defensive, adaptive or pathological.
Secondly, psychoanalysis when viewed from another cultural context reveals itself to be
steeped in concepts from the Judaeo-Christian tradition and European patterns of family life.
Kakar writes a ‘monotheistic tradition with its emphasis on a father-god, had little relevance
for the Indian religious tradition of polytheism where mother-goddesses often constituted
the deepest sub-stratum of Indian religiosity’ (Kakar 2005: 808).
Thirdly, understanding India’s history and identity requires engaging with the complex
issues of colonialism. Psychoanalysis came to be seen ‘as a vehicle of cultural prejudice and
oppression’ allied to ‘racist counter-transference’ (Akhtar and Tummala-Narra 2005: 11,
13). In the context of being a colonized people Kakar argues that Indian intellectuals
that have modified concepts from other psychotherapeutic approaches from 1960 onwards (Neki 1967, 1975,
1981). See Nagaraja Rao’s Presidential Address to the Indian Psychiatric Society in 1998 ‘Psychotherapy -
Choices in the Indian Context’ http://priory.com/psych/psychind.htm accessed 15/2/09.
306 They met once in Vienna in 1926 at the Hotel Imperial. Freud wrote ‘He is a wonderful sight, he really
looks like we imagined the Lord God looks, but only about 10,000 years older than the way Michelangelo
painted him in the Sistine’. The ‘we’ may refer to Anna and Martha Freud who accompanied him (Biswas
2003).
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