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This is an emotionally and intellectually engaging book. In fact, the powerful emotions conveyed in both narrative and style may pose a challenge to some readers. As this reviewer progressed through the chapters, however, it became more and more clear that the intense reading
experience was less a secondary byproduct of the author’s writing and more his conscious intention.
In his opening, Sklar presents an intensely moving account of his family history, including his father’s experience in dealing with the British Union of Fascists. The author seems to be communicating that the best way—indeed, perhaps the only way—to get at the roots of racism, antisemitism, xenophobia, misogyny, and human exploitation is to truly and honestly relate it to what is deeply personal. In that sense, if the task is tackled with an open heart and mind, reading this book moves beyond a rewarding intellectual experience and becomes a veritable emotional roller coaster, one that leads the reader through peaks of intense anger, valleys of sadness—and, thankfully, glimpses of hope.
Dark Times consists of three main chapters and an introduction. The first chapter, “Europe in Dark Times: Some Dynamics in Alterity and Prejudice,” delves into the historical causes and remnants of totalitarianism in contemporary Europe, and to a lesser extent, in the United States. One of the most interesting aspects of this chapter—indeed, of the book—is the way in which Sklar takes on the psychoanalysis of those vestiges of “prejudicial unconscious phantasies” (p. 9) that remain in analytic societies. Brandishing his analytic skills and writing in a brave and candid way, the author turns his gaze on the institutional aspects of our field in the same manner that he might approach a patient. He examines the history, traumas, scars, and splits of psychoanalytic societies with the same intent that any critical psychoanalyst would; in other words, he searches not for a cure, but for healthier, less pathological ave