The Twice-Born - A Study of a Community of High-Caste Hindus by Carstairs, G. Morris - 1957

London: The Hogarth Press, 1957. Gold title on red cloth boards which are unmarked with no wear. Internally there is an inscription to front endpaper, light foxing to closed edges else very clean, tight and unmarked. A Very Good+ copy. Dustjacket has a little wear to top edge and is not price clipped. 343 pages. Preface by Margaret Mead. Can a European ever understand the workings of the Indian mind? Dr. Carstairs, a professional psychologist, has brought his special knowledge and skill to attempt to analyse and explain the essential differences between the Hindu and the European mentality. A European scientist trained in the discipline of social anthropology, he was also born in India and spent his childhood in Rajasthan. When therefore in 1949 he went to India in order to spend two years in northern villages, he was not visiting a strange culture, and the dialect in which he conversed with his informants was literally his mother tongue. The rich and intimate detail of the life histories which he obtained from his Hindu collaborators - three of which are here produced at length - provides the basis for his analysis of Hindu personality-formation in which historical, sociological and psycho-analytic concepts each play a part. C3C. First Edition. Hard Cover. Very Good/Very Good. 8vo - over 7¾" - 9¾" tall.