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In Leaps and Bounds: Psychic Development and its Facilitation in Treatment

Author(s) : Salman Akhtar

Reviews and Endorsements

Salman Akhtar draws on four decades of experience as a doctor, poet, academic, immigrant, and psychoanalyst in a work of “sculpted creativity” that deepens our understanding of lifelong development and of development-facilitating interventions. This results in a culturally and linguistically sensitive book, which includes powerful poetry, for psychoanalytic, medical, and psychology students as well as for seasoned clinicians. Akhtar has unpacked the metapsychology of developmental help in the clearest exposition I have ever read.
Jennifer Davids, Supervising Child and Adolescent Psychoanalyst, British Psychoanalytical Society (BPaS); Adult, Child, and Adolescent Psychoanalyst, BPaS, IPA

Salman Akhtar provides us with a rich psychoanalytic exploration of development: from the prenatal period to old age. With an exquisite writing style, he integrates analytic concepts, developmental principles, and sociocultural forces. To highlight this work, he illustrates the theoretical principles with almost twenty clinical vignettes. This makes his book highly readable and useful for clinicians at all levels of experience.
Leon Hoffman, Co-Director, Pacella Research Center, New York Psychoanalytic Society and Institute; Chief Psychiatrist, West End Day School

With a writing style that blends medical scholarship, psychoanalysis, poetry, and storytelling, In Leaps and Bounds takes us on an inspiring journey through life’s developmental seasons. It offers us a coherent and eminently useful set of “development-facilitating interventions” that enhance patients’ autonomy, validate subjectivity, create space for thinking, and provide words for the unmentalized sectors of inner experience. This is a striking addition to our therapeutic armamentarium!
Olga Santa María, Training and Supervising Analyst, APM, IPA President, Mexican Psychoanalytic Society

Despite Akhtar’s psychoanalytic grounding, the interventions are highly relevant to therapists of different modalities owing to their largely relational nature. I found his suggestions to be very thought-provoking in terms of attending to the relationship, and well illustrated by detailed and culturally diverse vignettes.
Emily Harrison, BACP Therapy Today