Few of Sudhir Kakar's works involves of psychoanalysis of mysticism. His psychoanalysis include Swami Vivekananda in The Inner World (1978), Mahatma Gandhi in Intimate Relations (1989), and Ramakrishna in The Analyst and the Mystic (1991).Gerald James Larson, writing in the Journal of the American Academy of Religion wrote that, "Sudhir Kakar...indicates that there would be little doubt that from a Psychoanalysis point of view Ramakrishna could be diagnosed as a secondary transsexual." Larson further wrote that for anyone acquainted with Bengali spirituality and cultural life many of the symbolic visions and fantasies of Ramakrishna, which appear "bizarre and even pathological" when construed only in isolation or individually, become much less so when one relates them to nineteenth-century Bengal.

Kakar sought a meta-psychological non-pathological explanation that connects Ramakrishna's mystical realization with creativity. Kakar also argues that culturally relative concepts of eroticism and gender have contributed to the Western difficulty in comprehending Ramakrishna.

Kakar’s fiction novel, Ecstasy (2003) deals with the "making of a mystic" and with "two characters who are very different. One is steeped in traditional religiosity. The other is a modern, rational sceptic but who is not closed to tradition. It deals with their encounters. And how one is influenced by the other" and the characters were based on Ramakrishna and Vivekananda. The story is set in Rajasthan of forties or sixties

Psychoanalyst Alan Roland (2009) writes that when Kakar applies his psychoanalytic understanding to these "three spiritual figures [Swami Vivekananda, Gandhi, Ramakrishna]", his analyses are as "fully reductionistic as those of Jeffrey Masson". Roland also disputes the Kakar's theoretical understanding of mysticism from a psychoanalytic standpoint, and writes that it is "highly questionable whether spiritual aspirations, practices, and experiences essentially involve regression."

Sudhir Kakar has sixteen non-fiction and four fiction works to his credit:

Non-fiction

• Mad and Divine: Spirit and Psyche in the Modern World
• Inner World: A Psycho-Analytic Study of Childhood and Society in India: Psychoanalytic Study of Childhood and Society in India, OUP India, 2Rev Ed (14 October 1982) ISBN 0195613058 (10), ISBN 978-0195613056 (13)
• Shamans, Mystics, And Doctors
• Tales Of Love, Sex And Danger
• Intimate Relations
• The Colors Of Violence
• The Indians
• Kamasutra
• Fredrick Taylor
• Understanding Organizational Behavior
• Conflict And Choice
• Identity And Adulthood
• The Analyst And The Mystic
• La Folle Et Le Saint
• Culture And Psyche
• The Indian Psyche
• The Essential Writings Of Sudhir Kakar

Fiction

• The Ascetic Of Desire
• Indian Love Stories
• Ecstasy
• Mira And The Mahatma