False Self: The Life of Masud Khan

Reviews and Endorsements

'This sensible, intelligent and scrupulously researched biography sets out to tell Masud Khan's story. It refrains from easy psychoanalytic interpretation and has such a light touch that we meet the author only in her quest for interviews and in her enthusiastic discovery of Khan's fascinating Work Books. Linda Hopkins is to be congratulated on evading both the outrage that a reader like myself feels, and also the adulation that Khan inspired in his lovers and acolytes. Instead she has simply recorded the story in a transparent voice that is clear as a bell and, in a way, sadly honest about the major fault lines in an influential personality. This is an important biography for its reference points are the relevance and standing of psychoanalysis in today's world, the crossroads between Western and Muslim culture, and, ultimately, the contemporary conflict between dramatic image and authentic life.'
- Bob Hinshelwood, Professor, Centre for Psychoanalytic Studies, University of Essex

'If I were a snob, a liar, a drunk, a philanderer, an anti-Semite, a violent bully, a poseur and a menace to the vulnerable, I would want Linda Hopkins to write my biography. Masud Khan was all of these things. Hopkins has written the story of his life with the kind of generous forgiveness, insistent evenhandedness, patient understanding and restrained judgment one might hope for in a very good analyst of a certain kind, or a wise, exceptionally forbearing and insightful mother. She sees his life as a tragedy lived "on a scale grand enough to match his favorite characters: Shakespeare's King Lear and Dostoevsky's Prince Myshkin."'
- Amy Bloom, The New York Times Review of Books

'I didn't want False Self to end! I can't thank Linda Hopkins enough for the truth of the book, the detailed care, and the love of life that it reveals.'
- Michael Eigen, PhD, Author and analyst, New York City

Customer Reviews

Our customers have given this title an average rating of 5 out of 5 from 2 review(s), add your own review for this title.

Amit Fcahler on 10/01/2010 19:17:42

(5 out of 5)

Actually, to correct my brief review, Hopkins suggests that what Khan needed most of all was a therapuetic process that included regression to dependence and a deep analysis of his false self disorder. Anyway, after reading the biography for the fifth time, it is still mind-boggling and stimulating.

Amit Fachler on 06/11/2008

(5 out of 5)

A superb account of the life and work of Masud Khan. The rich narratives of his patients are gripping, and the book is a lesson for practitioners in omnipotence, guruism and the dangers of boundary violation. One might argue with Hopkins statement that a Klienian analysis would have saved Khans conflicted soul; but the story as a whole is truely powerful. Highly recommended.