Unlit Corners: Dirtiness, Miserliness, Shyness, Outrageousness, Shallowness, Indecisiveness, Restlessness, and Cowardliness
Book Details
- Publisher : Karnac Books
- Published : June 2024
- Pages : 222
- Category :
Psychoanalysis - Catalogue No : 97590
- ISBN 13 : 9781800132573
- ISBN 10 : 1800132573
Also by Salman Akhtar
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Unlit Corners endeavours to bring light to neglected character traits which many struggle to overcome. Filled with relevant case studies and carefully crafted psychoanalytic theory, the book elucidates the multilayered nature of such psychopathologies and its treatment. Beginning in the public realm, Nina Savelle-Rocklin explores the complex meaning of ‘dirtiness,’ both literally and figuratively, relating it the body, mind, and language. Ann Smolen’s investigation of miserliness follows, where she emphasizes that it is not about money, but instead arises from the poverty of internal good objects, which are the basic source of generosity. Jerome Blackman examines the nuanced potential meanings of shyness using psychopathology and underlying etiology, while Lois Choi-Kain deftly categorizes outrageousness into three types: a guilt driven masochist, a hope-driven optimist, and a hate-driven sadist, with a subcategory for creative writers and artists
The more private traits start with shallowness. Michael Civin develops ‘shallow’ as a general construct and studies it from a psychoanalytic perspective, arguing that no human being can be described accurately as shallow. The Kayatekins come next with their study of indecisiveness and the role of the ego as a way of understanding this trait. Nilofer Kaul looks at ‘restlessness’ and its associations in psychoanalysis, literature, and culture. The final chapter comes from Salman Akhtar on the subject of cowardliness, where he links it to the lack of self protective devices emanating from breeches in the early mother–child bond and deficient identification with the same-sex parent.
This book is highly recommended to clinicians to give them the tools to not only understand and empathize with their patient’s struggles but also to enhance their capacity to help them overcome such struggles.
Reviews and Endorsements
This original book provides rich discussions of eight clinically common but suboptimally addressed character traits. Each of its essays helps the reader gain better understanding of one such trait, increased empathy for the emotional difficulties underlying it, and improved capacity to deal effectively with it in the clinical situation.
Lena Ehrlich, PsyD, FABP, Faculty Member, Michigan Psychoanalytic Institute, author of Psychoanalysis from Inside Out: Developing and Sustaining an Analytic Identity and Practice
Despite the interest shown in the topic by Freud and the early analysts, the notion of the “character trait” has been somewhat underrepresented in our literature, making Salman Akhtar’s edited contribution all the more timely. Impressive in its range of approaches and clinical insights, Unlit Corners is crucial reading for clinicians and researchers alike who seek illumination for some of the most ubiquitous and aetiologically obscure facets of human subjectivity.
Tom DeRose, Research Director, Freud Museum London
Dr Akhtar has never been shy of shedding light on unlit corners of our field. Here he has, once again, brought together a group of distinguished contributors to offer a decisive and deep analysis of eight challenging human traits. It is a comprehensive exploration, executed humbly, that both settles and prods our curiosity about these realms.
Gurmeet Kanwal, MD, Clinical Associate Professor of Psychiatry, Weill Cornell Medicine, New York; Faculty Member and Supervising Analyst, William Alanson White Institute, New York
Table of Contents
Acknowledgments
About the Editor and Contributors
Introduction
PART I: MOSTLY PUBLIC
1. Dirtiness
Nina Savelle-Rocklin
2. Miserliness
Ann Smolen
3. Shyness
Jerome Blackman
4. Outrageousness
Lois Choi-Kain
PART II: MOSTLY PRIVATE
5. Shallowness
Michael Civin
6. Indecisiveness
M. Sagman Kayatekin and Z. Emel Kayatekin
7. Restlessness
Nilofer Kaul
8. Cowardliness
Salman Akhtar
References
Index
About the Editor(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.
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