Psychoanalysis in Iran

Sirs,

I thought it would be of interest to the members of the international analytic community who read the International Forum of Psychoanalysis to convey briefly my impressions on visiting Iran. At the invitation of Dr. Mahdieh Moin and Professor Mohammad Sanati of the psychotherapy department of Tehran University of Medical Sciences, I attended the 3rd International Psychoanalytical Congress. Some 700 people came to the Congress. I was also asked to do a three-day teaching workshop for a private training course outside the University, run by Dr. Babak Roshanaie, an International Psychoanalytical Association (IPA) member in private practice in Iran. I was surprised by this current interest in psychoanalysis, especially within the psychiatric services and among the trainee psychiatrists.

Mohammed Sanati, an emeritus professor at the university, has been teaching psychoanalytic psychotherapy for the last 32 years, after he studied in England and returned to Iran. His dedicated efforts have paved the way for postrevolution psychoanalysis to evolve despite all the adversities. In fact, at the recent IPA Congress in July 2019, Professor Sanati was given an award for his “Extraordinary Meritorious Contribution” to psychoanalysis.

I was also invited by Babak Roshanaie who is one of three IPA members working in Tehran. Babak invited me to give theoretical and clinical seminars to students at his centre. He himself trained in Seattle, USA, becoming an IPA member, and returned to Iran nine years ago. He joined Gohar Homayounpour, trained in Boston, USA, who had been working in Iran since 2006, and more recently Elahe Sagart has returned from Los Angeles. Touraj Moradi is a member of the European Council for Psychoanalytic Psychotherapy and has been teaching self-psychology for over 20 years. Mahdieh Moin has been studying at the Tavistock Clinic and is a British Psychotherapy Council member. Together with Mohammad Sanati, they have succeeded in taking psychoanalysis into the p