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Edited by Salman Akhtar
Lanham, MD: Jason Aronson, 414 pp. + XIX, 2008.
Salman Akhtar's latest book, The Crescent and the Couch: Cross-currents between Islam and Psychoanalysis, is a work of vision, brilliance, persistence and courage. I know from my own experience that the publication of any book has its own story behind the story and this book, I am certain, is no different. It could not have been easy to put it together, find a publisher, and shepherd it through the editorial process. However, it is beyond the scope of this review to discuss these details, but suffice it to say that the appearance of a book like this, particularly at this time, is a benefit to all.
Akhtar is a well-known and prolific psychoanalyst, with to his credit nearly 300 scientific publications, including 40 authored and edited books. One of the genres of Dr Akhtar's writing is in the realm of applied psychoanalysis and this book exemplifies this aspect of his work, namely the application of psychoanalytic ideas and psychoanalytic thinking to culture and religion. It follows on the heels of other important works as Colors of Childhood , Immigration and Identity , Freud Along the Ganges , The Cultural Zoo , The Geography of Meanings , and The Orient and the Unconscious (in press). He has also written books on poetry in Urdu and English, non-fiction and, of course, on clinical issues in psychoanalysis.
I have had the pleasure and honor to know Dr Akhtar for more than 30 years now and both of us have been students of the renowned psychoanalyst-political scientist, Vamik Volkan.
Little did I know that one day, when I undertook a review of Akhtar's edited volume on Islam, I would realize that my whole psychiatry and psychoanalytic training has actually been under Muslim influence!
This said, let us move on to the book itself which opens with an engaging introduction by Akhtar. He asks us to imagine that we are watching a PowerPoint presentation about Islam. We are exposed to all the familiar terms th