This paper explores the influence of Indian philosophical and spiritual thought on the psychoanalytic contributions of Emmanuel Ghent. The Indian intermingling of lower and higher, sensual and spiritual, and erotic and enlightened creates an alternative model to the hierarchical Western Platonic notion of sublimation as embraced by Freud. The author discusses an elaboration of the Indian position in Ghent's work on surrender and in his explorations of the contributions of D. W. Winnicott. In particular, this author posits that the Indian concept of the relationship of tapas, or restraint, to kama, or desire, influenced Ghent's thinking on the therapeutic action of psychoanalysis.