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.
Good Stuff is divided into two main parts; Part I addresses Positive Attributes and Part II, Positive Actions. The former contains chapters on Courage, Resilience, and Gratitude. The latter contains... (more)
Good Stuff is divided into two main parts; Part I addresses Positive Attributes and Part II, Positive Actions. The former contains chapters on Courage, Resilience, and Gratitude. The latter contains... (more)
‘This book is a major contribution to culture and to the psychoanalytic literature. The authors explore how animals, both wild and domesticated, have powerful symbolic meanings in our psyches,... (more)
‘Salman Akhtar and Vamik Volkan’s dynamic book, Mental Zoo, takes the reader on a panoramic tour illuminating the rich world of animals in human experience. Here Freud’s rats, wolves, and horses join... (more)
The Textbook of Applied Psychoanalysis is a unique and original contribution to the field of psychoanalysis. Emphasizing and underscoring the need for interdisciplinary discourse in understanding the... (more)
The Electrified Mind helps therapists understand and empathize with patients who rely heavily upon cell phones and the internet for the purposes of self-expression as well as for defensive avoidance... (more)
Missed opportunities, unfulfilled dreams, and broken promises are the stuff of everyday life and so is regret, the emotion that accompanies them. Unlike remorse which is consequent upon the... (more)
The experience of loss is ubiquitous in human life, but its nature and impact have great variations. When loss is phase-specific, expected, and accompanied by compensatory supplies, it can lead to... (more)
In this, the latest in a series of books examining emotional states and psychological life, Salman Akhtar and Aisha Abbasi critically discuss a concept that remains, appropriately perhaps, elusive... (more)
This book is about affect-its origins, development and uses-and how it is viewed in a clinical setting. The authors track and further develop the recent major changes in the understanding of affect.... (more)
In this work, Salman Akhtar looks at how many fathers unconsciously, and sometimes quite consciously, attempt to revise their own traumatized childhood by providing their children with possibilities... (more)
Arrogance as a specific constellation of affect, fantasy, and behavior has received little attention in psychoanalysis. This is striking in light of the enormous amount of literature accumulated on... (more)
Though references to it are scattered in the writings of Klein and Winnicott, the topic of greed has drawn meagre attention from contemporary psychoanalysts. This book fills that lacuna. Noting that... (more)
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... (more)
Mourning and the importance of the capacity to bear some helplessness, while still finding pleasure in life, are central to this tightly organized volume. The multi-faceted processes involved in... (more)
This book is about understanding and managing patients with severe personality disorders. It covers biological, psychoanalytic and cognitive-behavioural approaches and provides a pragmatic guide to... (more)
This edited volume addresses the critical psychoanalytic issue of effective listening. This issue has been discussed widely in the literature but most often from the standpoint of technique.... (more)
Why do people migrate from one country to another? What is the difference between an immigrant and an exile? What determines the psychological outcome of immigration? Can one ever mourn the loss of... (more)
Starting from a separation-individuation perspective, this text discusses cultural issues in child rearing and clinical practice. Included are chapters on African-American, Japanese, and South... (more)
Can psychoanalysis lead us toward understanding the roots and nature of religious belief? In this text, five classical psychoanalysts representing five different religious faiths share their... (more)
Focusing on facets of mental functioning and psychopathology that remain largely unrecognized in psychiatric and psychoanalytic literature, this work raises intriguing questions about man's... (more)
In this tribute to Selma Kramer, eminent child analyst and colleague and close friend of the late Margaret Mahler, senior analysts explore the continuing relevance of Mahler's... (more)
This text examines severe personality disorders from various angles. It covers: diagnosis and differential diagnosis; structure and dynamics; origins and development; evaluation and triage;... (more)
This work analyses the concept of object constancy in the light of developmental research and clinical practice. The clinical implications of disturbances in object constancy are discussed, with... (more)
This work shows how, in applying Margaret Mahler's developmental framework to the life-cycle, the separation-individuation process continues, even after a degree of self and object constancy has been... (more)
Contents include: Fidelity: from cannibalism to imperialism and beyond; intimacy and individuation; egocentricity. (more)
This book integrates psychiatry and psychoanalysis to present deeper and sounder clinical profiles of the personality disorders than have been hitherto available. (more)
Fragmentation, feeling torn apart by conflict, self-loathing, and loneliness, are some forms of inner torment that characterize the mental lives of many patients who seek psychotherapy. This text... (more)
Attempting to advance knowledge about Islam and to create the possibility of a dialogue between Islam and psychoanalysis, The Crescent and the Couch brings together a distinguished panel of Muslim... (more)
"The Future of an Illusion" reveals Freud's reflections about religion as well as his hope that in the future science will go beyond religion, and reason will replace faith in God. The discussion... (more)