The paper argues that within social sciences, efforts to represent the "other" are simultaneously efforts at understanding major social science problems and the representations of self within them. In this perspective psychoanalysis and tantric thought are compared. Tantra is seen as having an element of transcendence which, despite its similarities with Freudian thought, makes it unique to Indian cultural tradition. The essay tries to show how the tantric system of thought is also a profound critique of the classical Brabmanic worldview of India, and bow the tantric system is ancient and postmodern at the same time in its formulations and intentions.
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