Tales of Love, Sex, and Danger

This book discusses the complexities of love and the nature of erotic passion as these appear in the great love stories of the world. Starting with the story of Romeo and Juliet and its roots in European Christianity, the authors uncover hidden depths of cultural and universal significance in famous romantic tales of the Middle East and the Indian Subcontinent-’Layla and Majnun’, ’Heer and Ranjha’, ’Sohni and Mahinwal’, ’Vis and Ramin’, and ’Radha and Krishna’. Moving westward again, Kakar and Ross look at the Greek myth of Oedipus, the Celtic saga of Tristan and Isolde, the tragic drama of Hamlet, the legend of Phaedra and Hippolytus, and a contemporary handling of the love theme in the writings of Vladimir Nabokov. This new edition, published after 25 years of the first edition, includes an Epilogue which re-evaluates the authors’ assertions about romantic and erotic love in the context of contemporary psychoanalysis and modern literary theory.

Sudhir Kakar is a psychoanalyst and writer who lives in Goa, India. Sudhir Kakar’s seventeen books of non-fiction and five of fiction include The Inner World, Culture and Psyche, Shamans, Mystics and Doctors, The Analyst and the Mystic, The Colors of Violence, The Ascetic of Desire, Ecstasy, and Mira and the Mahatma. His books have been translated into twenty languages around the world.
John Munder Ross is Clinical Professor and Training Analyst, The Columbia Center for Psychoanalytic Training and Research, Columbia University Medical Center.