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Salman Akhtar has produced a most impressive book, the result of his personal experience as an immigrant and as a superbly well-trained, sensitive, and conscientious psychoanalyst. Since most American families can trace themselves to an immigrant ancestor, his book offers information of potential interest to everyone, analyst or not. It will no doubt be of more compelling interest to those whose families have arrived recently, but it is also of immediate and practical usefulness to mental health professionals, and anyone working with immigrants.
With my long involvement in cross-cultural matters, and my special fascination with Indian culture, I bring a high level of interest to reading and reviewing books like Dr. Akhtar's. This book, which clearly reflects an amazing amount of scholarship, contains an enormous amount of condensed information, which will not surprise readers familiar with the typical thoroughness of Indian intellectuals. However, even with my intrinsic motivation, it was definitely not an easy read. I forged ahead because of my deep desire to learn what he had to say.
Part I discusses a diverse range of topics associated with immigration. Part II describes the historical evolution of the concept of identity within the field of psychology, and lays the theoretical groundwork for Dr. Akhtar's principal area of analysis: the effects of immigration upon the identity and self-esteem of the immigrant. Using object relations concepts, with particular emphasis on the work of Margaret Mahler, he goes on to outline four main tracks in identity transformation following immigration: