Krishna’s Leela and Winnicott’s Play: A Correspondence

Abstract

It is time for psychology to get in touch with its creative roots. This paper emphasizes psychoanalysis of the highest and the deepest parts of psychology—correspondence between the infantile and the mystical. Both parts carry with them a promise of absorption, which echoes in itself a ground zero for psychology. It is about creatively noticing the fundamentals and witnessing a dependent origination. Krishna was a man of the future. He is beyond post-postmodernism. It is on the grounds that Krishna’s truth is ‘neither this nor that, this also, that also’—a paradoxical site by accepting the totality of existence. Different people saw different facets of who he is. For some he is God, for some, he is a crook, for some, he is a lover, for some, he is an eloquent flute player, for some, he is a truly audacious warrior, the most vibrant embodiment, a yogi of the paramount order, and so on. We see what both the creative analysts—Krishna and Winnicott have to offer in the understanding of the infantile in our time. Both of them allow us to explore the most profound and the most serious aspect of life playfully. If we want to be-in, be-with, and finally be the truth, we will need Leela ‘play.’ At the intersection of psychoanalysis and culture, can Winnicott’s true self dance to the flute of Krishna?

Presenters

Vineet Gairola
Student, Ph.D., Indian Institute of Technology Hyderabad, Uttar Pradesh, India

Details

Presentation Type

Paper Presentation in a Themed Session

Theme

Culture and Education

KEYWORDS

INFANTILE, TRUE SELF, PSYCHOANALYSIS, PLAY, CULTURE, HINDUISM

Digital Media

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Krishna’s Leela and Winnicott’s Play (mp4)

Vineet_Gairola__Krishna_s_Leela_and_Winnicott_s_play__Religion_in_Society_Digital_Media.mp4