Epilogue. Issue 3 (3rd July 2018)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Mukherjee, Soumen
• Is Part Of: South Asian history and culture. Volume 9:Issue 3(2018)
• Page Start: 364
• Page End: 371
• Publication Date: 2018-07-03
• Subjects: psy-disciplines -- mysticism -- consciousness -- mind -- soul; South Asia -- Periodicals; South Asia; Periodicals; 954.005
• DOI: 10.1080/19472498.2018.1488367
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 1947-2498

Abstract

ABSTRACT: There are pertinent reasons to rethink and revise theories of compartmentalised fields of the 'sciences' contra the 'religious' contra the 'esoteric', the 'occult', and the 'mystical'. At one level this is due to the revisionist endeavours in the humanities and the social sciences that have very compellingly questioned the Enlightenment project of epistemic binarism which has, in the process, tended to make us wary of any thesis of a neat unbroken genealogy of the 'rational' sciences vis-à-vis the 'religious', the 'esoteric' and so forth. At another level, by logical extension, the very definition of the 'sciences' is at stake, especially when it comes to the psy-disciplines. Within the psy-disciplines, C.G. Jung's (1875–1961) critique of Sigmund Freud's (1856–1939) psychoanalysis, for instance, illustrates crucial epistemological tensions revolving around the human mind and consciousness as well as the question of relevance of the religious and the mystical. Anchored in different academic fields, the essays in this special issue explore some aspects of the complexities that characterise approaches to human mind and consciousness. They examine the complex lineages of the psy-disciplines and other cognate fields with reference to both European and non-European epistemic traditions, and at times pose fundamental questions about the cores and peripheries of such epistemic systems.