All the mothers are one : Hindu India and the cultural reshaping of psychoanalysis

Author(s)

Bibliographic Information

All the mothers are one : Hindu India and the cultural reshaping of psychoanalysis

Stanley N. Kurtz ; foreword by S.J. Tambiah

Columbia University Press, c1992

  • : pbk

Available at  / 20 libraries

Search this Book/Journal

Note

Includes bibliography (p. [287]-295) and index

Description and Table of Contents

Volume

ISBN 9780231078689

Description

Based on the author's ethnographic research in India, the book explores the psychology of Hinduism, and offers an innovative synthesis of psychoanalysis with modern anthropological theories of cultural difference. Stanley N. Kurtz offers a new interpretation of the multiple "mother goddesses" of Hinduism, and explores how this multiplicity is key to understanding early childhood experience in which a child is raised by many "mothers" in the Hindu joint family. Arguing that traditional psychoanalytic approaches to Indian culture have applied Western models without regard to differing cultural circumstances, Kurtz suggests that immersion in a joint family plays a central role in the development of feelings and needs which are carried over into adult life. The book concludes with a brief comparison of mothering in India and contemporary America.
Volume

: pbk ISBN 9780231078696

Description

Based on the author's ethnographic research in India, the book explores the psychology of Hinduism, and offers an innovative synthesis of psychoanylsis with modern anthropological theories of cultural difference. Stanley N. Kurtz offers a new interpretation of the multiple "mother goddesses" of Hinduism, and explores how this multiplicity is key to understanding early childhood experience in which a child is raised by many "mothers" in the Hindu joint family. Arguing that traditional psychoanalytic approaches to Indian culture have applied Western models without regard to differing cultural circumstances, Kurtz suggests that immersion in a joint family plays a central role in the development of feelings and needs which are carried over into adult life. The book concludes with a briefr comparison of mothering in India and contemporary America. All the Mothers Are One makes a significant contribution to the growing debate concerning the role of psychoanalysis in the interpretation of culture and the study of cross-cultural human development.

by "Nielsen BookData"

Details

Page Top