SALMAN AKHTAR WORKSHOP

Please Note: To preserve and respect both intellectual property rights and confidentiality, the seminar will not be recorded, nor is recording permitted.

Mental Pain of Minorities:
Deconstruction and Amelioration

This presentation shall focus upon the psychosocial experience of minorities, especially the chronic, subtle, but ever-present mental pain that seems to be their emotional fate. The discourse will open by addressing the very definition of the designation ,’minority’. It will be argued that the concept is hardly statistic-based and instead revolves around issues of politico-economic power and representation, or lack there off.The proposal that minorities are needed but not wanted would undergird the sources of their emotional suffering. Under the didactically helpful categories of (a) presence ,(b) perception, (c) participation, and (d) progress, the subjectivity of minorities will be deconstructed and its nuances elucidated. Attention then will be given to ameliorative measures that shall involve the roles of both the majority as well as the minority itself. A blend of social anthropology and contemporary psychoanalysis shall form the theoretical background of the ideas and hypotheses proposed here and ample social and clinical illustrations will be provided to enliven the discourse.

About the Speaker:

Salman Akhtar, MD Emeritus Professor of Psychiatry, Jefferson Medical College Training & Supervising Analyst, Psychoanalytic Center of Philadelphia

Salman Akhtar, MD is an internationally known psychiatrist, psychoanalyst, writer, and poet based in the United States. He has published 114 authored or edited books and given lectures and workshops in over 40 countries. Dr. Akhtar has served on the editorial boards of the three most important journals of our field, namely Journal of the American Psychoanalytic Association, International Journal of Psychoanalysis and Psychoanalytic Quarterly. His books have been translated in many languages and he has received numerous professional honors, including the highly prestigious Sigourney Award for Distinguished Contributions to Psychoanalysis. Recently a 10-volume set of his Selected Papers was released at a festive ceremony at the Freud House & Museum in London. Dr. Akhtar has published 19 collections of poetry and serves as a Scholar-in-Residence at the Inter-Act Theatre Company in Philadelphia. https://www.interacttheatre.org/