Girindrashekhar Basu (1887-1953) was an outstanding applied psychologist of great originality who developed his own methods and theories, although in line with those of Freud. The main difference lay in the concept of the “repressed”. Basu’s view is well-known as the “theory of opposite wish”. Although Freud did not fully accept this view, he admitted the importance of extensive tests to verify it.  

Basu obtained his D.Sc. degree from Calcutta University in 1921, and started treating mental patients from the same year. It was at this time too that he corresponded with Freud. He founded the Indian Branch of the International Society for Psyo-analysis in 1922 at his own house at 14 Parshibagan Lane. In 1940 he established a three-bed mental hospital in a house donated by his brother, the eminent writer (and able scientist) Rajshekhar Basu. This was the beginning of the famous Lumbini Park mental home, which grew to have 175 beds and an outdoor clinic.

Girindrashekhar wrote a number of popular but authoritative articles on psychoanalysis and devoted considerable time and effort to developing the technical terminology of psychology in Bengali. His Bengali monograph Swapna (“Dreams”), profusely illustrated with his own case histories, is still considered to be a masterpiece. Basu also experimented with different modes of treating mental patients. He wrote an interesting analysis in Bengali of Indian mythological literature, Puran-Prabesh, which remains a source-book for historians to this day