Sudhir Kakar is a distinguished psychoanalyst and writer. He has written seventeen highly acclaimed books of non-fiction, which include, among others, The Inner World (now in its sixteenth printing since its first publication in 1978), Shamans, Mystics and Doctors, Intimate Relations, The Colours of Violence and, most recently , Young Tagore : The Makings of a Genius.
An inspired observer of the Indian psyche, Sudhir Kakar trained as a psychoanalyst at the Sigmund Freud Institute, Frankfurt. He set up a clinic in Delhi in 1975, thus embarking on a lifelong search for the wellsprings of Indian identity. He went on to establish the new discipline of cultural psychology.
A Book of Memory records not only the crises of identity and intellect, but also the highs and lows of love and pleasure. It is fearless and revelatory with regard to the self and its motivations, a rare candour illuminating the urbane prose.
