Sources of Suffering: Fear, Greed, Guilt, Deception, Betrayal, and Revenge

Author(s) : Salman Akhtar

Book Details

Publisher : Routledge
Published : May 2014
Cover : Paperback
Pages : 208
Category :
Psychoanalysis
Catalogue No : 34691
ISBN 13 : 9781782200697
ISBN 10 : 178220069X

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This concise and well-written book deals with six important roots of human anguish. It divides the six areas into those primarily affecting the individual and those primarily affecting others around him. Among the former are fear, greed, and guilt. Among the latter are deception, betrayal, and revenge. The book deals with each realm from descriptive, psychodynamic, sociocultural, and clinical perspectives. It provides ample literary examples and vignettes from psychotherapy and psychoanalysis. The aim is to help the readers enhance their empathy with these complex human experiences and to become more adept in helping their patients renounce or reduce their suffering.

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Reviews and Endorsements

‘In this gem of a book, Salman Akhtar turns his erudite gaze on fear, greed, guilt, deception, betrayal, and revenge. He draws from a wide spectrum of psychoanalytic theories and includes insights from developmental research, contemporary neuroscience, and even poetry and literature. The result is a fresh and scholarly synthesis of ideas about human suffering that will stimulate both the novice and seasoned clinician alike. It is crafted by a master of the written word.’
—Fakhry Davids, London

‘What gives this book its special character is the deep humanity with which Salman Akhtar explores “unnecessary, pathological but remediable suffering”. The wide and penetrating lens of his exploration, and the fact that each emotion is looked at in phenomenological, developmental, and sociocultural aspects, gives the book both a universal value and a contemporary flavour. It also evokes in the clinician and the reader a renewed tolerance towards the complexity of human emotions.’
—Maria Teresa Savio Hooke, Sydney

‘In this original and comprehensive analysis of six basic human emotions, Salman Akhtar has achieved a unique integration of the phenomenological, sociocultural, and psychopathological aspects of these sources of human suffering. Fear, greed, guilt, deception, betrayal, and revenge are clarified as essential human challenges, and the psychoanalyst’s struggle in unmasking and resolving their destructive aims is masterfully illustrated with clinical case material. An extensive and carefully selected bibliography complements what might become an essential text for the experienced clinician as well as a wonderful overview for the entire spectrum of psychodynamic psychotherapists.’
—Otto Kernberg, New York

‘Using his theoretical, clinical, and teaching skills, Salman Akhtar explores the intricacies of six sources of human suffering from various perspectives. The book is exceptionally rich in clinical vignettes, which illustrate with candour the sources of suffering of both patient and analyst. Profound, yet clear and didactic, it is a rare blend of scholarship, poetry, sharp wit, and therapeutic skill. Learning from this book about the sources of human suffering is an enriching intellectual and emotional experience.’
—Ilany Kogan, Jerusalem

About the Author(s)

Salman Akhtar, MD, is professor of psychiatry at Jefferson Medical College and a training and supervising analyst at the Psychoanalytic Center of Philadelphia. He has served on the editorial boards of the International Journal of Psychoanalysis and the Journal of the American Psychoanalytic Association. His more than 450 publications include twenty-three solo authored books – Broken Structures (1992), Quest for Answers (1995), Inner Torment (1999), Immigration and Identity (1999), New Clinical Realms (2003), Objects of Our Desire (2005), Regarding Others (2007), Turning Points in Dynamic Psychotherapy (2009), The Damaged Core (2009), Comprehensive Dictionary of Psychoanalysis (2009), Immigration and Acculturation (2011), Matters of Life and Death (2011), Psychoanalytic Listening (2013), Good Stuff (2013), Sources of Suffering (2014), No Holds Barred (2016), A Web of Sorrow (2017), Mind, Culture, and Global Unrest (2018), Silent Virtues (2019), Tales of Transformation (2022), In Leaps and Bounds (2022), and In Short (2024) – as well as sixty-nine edited or coedited volumes in psychiatry and psychoanalysis. Dr. Akhtar has delivered many prestigious addresses and lectures including, most significantly, the inaugural address at the first IPA-Asia Congress in Beijing, China (2010). Dr. Akhtar is the recipient of the Journal of the American Psychoanalytic Association’s Best Paper of the Year Award (1995), the Margaret Mahler Literature Prize (1996), the American Society of Psychoanalytic Physicians’ Sigmund Freud Award (2000), the American College of Psychoanalysts’ Laughlin Award (2003), the American Psychoanalytic Association’s Edith Sabshin Award (2000), Columbia University’s Robert Liebert Award for Distinguished Contributions to Applied Psychoanalysis (2004), the American Psychiatric Association’s Kun Po Soo Award (2004), the Irma Bland Award for being the Outstanding Teacher of Psychiatric Residents in the country (2005), and the Nancy Roeske Award (2012). He received the Sigourney Award (2013), which is the most prestigious honor in the field of psychoanalysis. Dr. Akhtar is an internationally sought speaker and teacher, and his books have been translated in many languages, including German, Turkish, and Romanian. His interests are wide and he has served as the film review editor for the International Journal of Psychoanalysis, and is currently serving as the book review editor for the International Journal of Applied Psychoanalytic Studies. He has published eighteen collections of poetry and serves as a scholar-in-residence at the Inter-Act Theatre Company in Philadelphia. His Selected Papers (Vols I–X) were recently published and released at a festive event held at the Freud House & Museum in London.