Overview

In this compact and pithy book, the distinguished and prolific psychoanalyst Salman Akhtar steps out of his consulting room to address certain matters of urgent global concern. These include migration across national borders, the current refugee crisis, ethno-racial prejudice, subjective distress of minorities, and, above all, the forever-present ominous shadow of terrorism. Akhtar evolves and advocates a uniquely 'anthropological psychoanalysis' which is a blend of depth psychology and humanities, including sociology, economics, political science, history, and , of course, anthropology. He deconstructs what seems self-evident and confronts his readers with some socio-politically unpleasant realities, both within psychoanalysis and in the prevalent perspectives on the on-going turmoil and bloodshed in today's world. His book is not all doom and gloom, however. It also delineates ameliorative strategies for dealing with the pain of the disenfranchised and the misguided violence of the radicalized. This is applied psychoanalysis at its best.

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9781782200673

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Reviews

Salman Akhtar's book is an impressive and passionate plea for a culturally relevant psychoanalysis. His deep knowledge of the field enables him to describe the issues with a bilateral flow of information between psychoanalysis and the humanities. He brilliantly explores current questions of migration, minorities, social prejudices, and terrorism. He also offers strategies for diminution of the pain of minorities and of prejudices as well as guidelines for the remediation of processes of dehumanization associated with terrorism. This book is an urgently needed psychoanalytic contribution to our present social and political problems. Werner Bohleber, Frankfurt This is an extremely captivating, timely and courageous book. It reveals Salman Akhtar's highly original hermeneutics and pragmatic vision of the current global crisis. Akhtar addresses the contemporary chaos and dislocation of the spirit of our times from the lens of his `anthropological psychoanalysis'. He speaks the unspeakable and unmasks the politically uncomfortable, while remaining faithful to his personal sense of poetics, psychoanalysis, and fairness in human affairs. Gohar Homayounpour, Tehranã In this book, the prolific psychoanalyst, Salman Akhtar, leaves the comfort of clinical practice and turns his gaze to current global turmoil. By forging dialectal links between unconscious intrapsychic dynamics and sociocultural phenomena such as prejudice, the problems of minorities, and the complex origins of terrorism, he lays down the groundwork for a truly modern anthropological psychoanalysis. Akhtar's book needs to be known not only to all psychoanalysts but outside the psychoanalytic circles as well. Hanni Mann-Shalvi, Tel Avivã Akhtar makes a brilliant case for an anthropologically-informed psychoanalysis and a culturally relativistic approach to patients and to political praxis. He recognizes that we, and those we treat and oppose, do not exist in a cultural vacuum; rather we and they think and work in our respective cultures with manifold unconscious assumptions.ã His work is deeply informed on the national, regional, and cultural permutations of Muslims and Islam and he offers trenchant recommendations for constructively dealing with the terrorism of radical and radicalized youth. Peter Loewenberg, Los Angeles

Salman Akhtar's book is an impressive and passionate plea for a culturally relevant psychoanalysis. His deep knowledge of the field enables him to describe the issues with a bilateral flow of information between psychoanalysis and the humanities. He brilliantly explores current questions of migration, minorities, social prejudices, and terrorism. He also offers strategies for diminution of the pain of minorities and of prejudices as well as guidelines for the remediation of processes of dehumanization associated with terrorism. This book is an urgently needed psychoanalytic contribution to our present social and political problems. Werner Bohleber, Frankfurt This is an extremely captivating, timely and courageous book. It reveals Salman Akhtar's highly original hermeneutics and pragmatic vision of the current global crisis. Akhtar addresses the contemporary chaos and dislocation of the spirit of our times from the lens of his `anthropological psychoanalysis'. He speaks the unspeakable and unmasks the politically uncomfortable, while remaining faithful to his personal sense of poetics, psychoanalysis, and fairness in human affairs. Gohar Homayounpour, Tehranã In this book, the prolific psychoanalyst, Salman Akhtar, leaves the comfort of clinical practice and turns his gaze to current global turmoil. By forging dialectal links between unconscious intrapsychic dynamics and sociocultural phenomena such as prejudice, the problems of minorities, and the complex origins of terrorism, he lays down the groundwork for a truly modern anthropological psychoanalysis. Akhtar's book needs to be known not only to all psychoanalysts but outside the psychoanalytic circles as well. Hanni Mann-Shalvi, Tel Avivã Akhtar makes a brilliant case for an anthropologically-informed psychoanalysis and a culturally relativistic approach to patients and to political praxis. He recognizes that we, and those we treat and oppose, do not exist in a cultural vacuum; rather we and they think and work in our respective cultures with manifold unconscious assumptions.ã His work is deeply informed on the national, regional, and cultural permutations of Muslims and Islam and he offers trenchant recommendations for constructively dealing with the terrorism of radical and radicalized youth. Peter Loewenberg, Los Angeles

Author Information

Salman Akhtar, MD, was born in India and completed his medical and psychiatric education there. Upon arriving in the USA in 1973, he repeated his psychiatric training at the University of Virginia School of Medicine, and then obtained psychoanalytic training from the Philadelphia Psychoanalytic Institute. Currently, he is Professor of Psychiatry at Jefferson Medical College and a training and supervising analyst at the Psychoanalytic Center of Philadelphia. He has authored, edited or co-edited more than 300 publications including books on psychiatry and psychoanalysis and several collections of poetry. He is also a Scholar-in-Residence at the Inter-Act Theatre Company in Philadelphia. Salman Akhtar received the Sigourney Award in 2012.

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