The Savage Freud: And Other Essays on Possible and Retrievable Selves

This is Nandy’s most important collection of essays so far. The core of the volume consists of two ambitious, deeply probing essays, one on the early success of psycho-analysis in India, the other on the justice meted out by the Tokyo War Crimes Tribunal to the defeated Japanese. Both issues are viewed in the context of the psychology of dominance over subservient of defeated culture.
The theme is explored further in the remaining essays, and subsumes topics ranging from mass culture and media, to political terrorism, the hold of modern medicine, and notably the conflict or split between the creative work of writers like Kipling, Rushdie, and H G Wells, and the political and social values they publicly and rationally profess.
The book is marked by Nandy’s characteristically ebullient style, sharply perceptive insights, and confident engagement views.