The volumes of the PROJECT ON THE HISTORY OF SCIENCE, PHILOSOPHY AND CULTURE IN INDIAN CIVILIZATION aim at discovering the main aspects of India’s heritage and present them in an interrelated way. In spite of their unitary look, these volumes recognize the difference between the areas of material civilization and those of ideational culture. The project is not being executed by a single group of thinkers and writers who are methodologically uniform or ideologically identical in their commitments. The Project is marked by what may be called ‘methodological pluralism’. Inspite of its primarily historical character, this project, both in its conceptualization and execution, has been shaped by scholars drawn from different disciplines. It is for the first time that an endeavour of such a unique and comprehensive character has been undertaken to study critically a major world civilization. Psychology and Psychoanalysis highlights the confluence of Indian and Western perspectives on the explorations of mental processes and behaviour. The volume is an authoritative source on the history and current standing of the new synthesis of idea that is emerging under the concept of Indian Psychology in the beginning of the 21st century. It shows how a traditionally occidental scientific discipline—psychology—can benefit from the rich cultural-historical traditions of all the different social practices and beliefs that have been present in the cultures of the Indian sub-continent for centuries. While occidental psychology has usually overlooked the contributions from outside the Euro-American axis of social power relations, it cannot do that anymore. Psychology in the Occident has been in a conceptual crisis ever since it’s beginning, and overcoming that crisis requires constructive innovation from other cultural traditions. The volume attends to some of the major issues central to the contemporary psychological scholarship. It offers perspectives on psychological phenomena and processes and situates them in the Indian context. In particular it brings to the center stage the issues that emanate from the interface of culture and psyche. In this process the volume offers a survey in some of the major domains of psychology to articulate disciplinary developments. The volume provides focused discussions on issue in each of these areas as well as on the emergent concerns. Contributed by leading psychologists in respective fields every chapter in the volume draws upon a theme of disciplinary and cultural significance to offer critical insights. The chapters are devoted to probing psychological themes in the tradition of culturally sensitive human science. In this way the volume fosters the connections between the scientific spirit and cultural intelligibilities. It offers analysis of the shifts and transformations in the discipline and documents scholarship that acknowledges the contributions from indigenous knowledge systems as well as contemporary developments in major subfields. Comprehensive and wide-ranging in scope the volume brings together current perspectives on the manner in which the various facets of human mind, behaviour and experience. It attempts at articulation and integration of Indian thought traditions and modern psychology by engaging in dialogue. By presenting authoritative and exhaustive analyses of substantive processes, debates, and phenomena relating to consciousness, self, identity, emotion, group behaviour, intergroup relations, justice, organization, values, gender, violence, well being and psychological knowledge. Taken together the volume reflects the diversity of research interests and critically evaluates the way psychology has responded to the sociocultural reality by psychologists and psychoanalysts.
ABOUT THE AUTHORS
D.P. CHATTOPADHYAYA, M.A., LL.B., Ph.D. (Calcutta and London School of Economics), D. Litt. (Honoris Causa), studied, researched on law, philosophy and history and taught at various Universities in India, Asia, Europe and USA from 1954 to 1994. Founder-Chairman of the Indian Council of Philosophical Research (1981-1990) and President-cum-Chairman of the Indian Institute of Advanced Study, Shimla (1984-1991), Chattopadhyaya is currently the Project Director of the multidisciplinary ninety-six volume Project of History of Indian Science, Philosophy and Culture (PHISPC) and Chairman of the Centre for Studies in Civilizations (CSC). Among his 37 publications, authored 19 and edited and co-edited 18, are Individuals and Societies (1967); Individuals and Worlds (1976); Sri Aurobindo and Karl Marx (1988); Anthropology and Historiography of Science (1990); Induction, Probability and Skepticism (1991); Sociology, Ideology and Utopia (1997); Societies, Cultures and Ideologies (2000); Interdisciplinary Studies in Science, Society, Value and Civilizational Dialogue (2002); Philosophy of Science, Phenomenology and Other Essays (2003); Philosophical Consciousness and Scientific K
