SHAMANS MYSTICS AND DOCTORS P

It's an amazing book, a must read for everyone who is trying to understand indian culture in the context of the topic. It's an amazing read so far though I haven't finished the whole book, but it really gives you the insight of diverse Indian mindset, school of thoughts and approaches towards healing or curing of issues

Excellent book. It gives you a look into the Indian superstitious ideas about spirits, balaji, possession and the kinds of possessing spirits. Bought it for my Master's dissertation on Spirit Possession.

"Shamanans, Mystics and Doctors" is on of the best books from Sutherland Kakar. I did't expected this much information from this book.Thanks.

This book is an excellent resource on Indian Shamanism seen from the eyes of a trained Scholar. I would recommend this book to anyone interested in the subject.

A must read for everyone. A must have for psychotherapist, and social workers who works against superstition.

Biased approach has been taken by the author yet the book is very informative.. I felt his inclination towards tantrik techniques coz he has not psycoanalysed tantrik procedures whereas he psycoanalysed all other techniques that are used in the temple or done by Muslim Saint, Sikhs guru, Hindu spiritual gurus etc. Maybe this is done purposely to attract westerners readers

not up to the point, could have been better if analysed with more examples. christian miracles untouched. often felt like a literary work.

Anyone in health care should read this...Kakar really provides some great insightsconsidering the changing pluralism of medicine in the Western biomedical monopoly I would love it if more health sciences people read his stuff.

Mental illness is a subject near and dear to my heart. I deal with mental illness at least once a month in the course of my job as a criminal defense lawyer. Some of my clients are what they call "dual diagnosis" which typically means substance abuse + mental illness. Of course I'm interested in different approaches to curing mental illness, from western psychiatry to eastern Shamanism. Here is a truth about this entire area: Anything works as long as the patient and the doctor share the same believe system. This means that the curative power, for all these practices, lies with the patient rather than the Doctor/Shaman/Wizard. This is the central thesis of Sudhir Kakar's illuminating Shamans, Mystics and Doctors. Kakar is an Indian Psychotherapist who wrote a book about the curative practices of a variety of Indian traditions: Muslim and Hindu Shaman. Shamans is divided into several chapters, each of which profile a different Guru or discipline with an approach to treating mental illness. Considering the depths that traditional Freud inspired Psychotherapy has reached since Kakar wrote this in the early 1980s, his medical Doctor psychiatric oriented appears almost as dated as the Muslim and Hindu shaman's who exorcise demons by name. However, Kakar is right on when it points out that ANY approach to healing and mental health can work so long as there are a healer and a patient who believe in the SAME THING. Kakar also notes that the central experience held in common by all the various methods of Indian mental curing is the disassociation of the self- getting "outside" your self, how you do it doesn't matter, but it needs to be guided by someone else, you can't do it yourself.