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    Home Authors Nina Savelle-Rocklin Eyes, Mind and Vision: Visual Realities and Metaphors in Psychoanalysis
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    Eyes, Mind and Vision: Visual Realities and Metaphors in Psychoanalysis

    Editors: Salman Akhtar and Nina Savelle-Rocklin

    £23.39 – £36.99Price range: £23.39 through £36.99

    A vital investigation into the importance of eyes and vision in psychoanalytic theory, which includes conceptual innovations, linguistic nuances, illustrations from fairy tales and folklore, film criticism, global concerns, sexual perversion, and clinical vignettes to bring theory to life. A must-read for psychoanalysts and ocular professionals.

    Due to be published January 2026

    Editors

    Salman Akhtar and Nina Savelle-Rocklin

    ISBN

    9781800134157

    Format

    Paperback, e-Book, Print & e-Book

    Page Extent

    312

    Publication Date

    January 2026

    Subject Areas

    Psychoanalysis

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    • Description
    • About the editors
    • Contents
    Description

    This pioneering work introduces the concept of psychoanalytic ophthalmology with chapters from Salman Akhtar, Suzanne Benser, Cemile Serin Gürdal, Richard K. Hertel, Alan Michael Karbelnig, Nilofer Kaul, Toni Mandelbaum, Anneliese Riess, Nina Savelle-Rocklin, Brian Watermeyer, and Thomas Wolman.

    Eyes play a role in a number of diverse psychopathologies, including hallucinations, blindness, voyeurism, and the feeling of being invisible or, conversely, under constant surveillance. Yet, vision is more than mere physical sight. There exist cultural notions, such as the “evil eye” and the mythic self-blinding of Oedipus, and the actions of seeing, looking, and watching (and the passive being seen, being looked at, being watched) play a huge part in childhood psychological development and adult psychosocial functioning. Our ocular experience begins with the maternal gaze and the eye-to-eye contact of mother and infant, which moves on to the ubiquitous “peek-a-boo” game, young children shouting “look at me!”, adolescents torn between wanting to be seen and to be invisible, the locked eyes of adult lovers, and so much more. Eyes can express respect or contempt, love or hate; they are called the windows to the soul. This collection of inspiring papers brings a much-needed focus on their varied and multi-layered role in our physical and mental lives and their continuing and overlooked importance in psychoanalytic theory and practice. This enjoyable book is ideal reading for academics and clinicians.

    About the editors

    About the editors

    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, the Journal of the American Psychoanalytic Association, and the Psychoanalytic Quarterly. His more than 400 publications include 105 books, of which the following 22 are solo-authored: 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), The Book of Emotions (2012), 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 (2021), and In Leaps and Bounds (2022).

    Dr Akhtar has delivered many prestigious invited lectures including a Plenary Address at the 2nd International Congress of the International Society for the Study of Personality Disorders in Oslo, Norway (1991), an Invited Plenary Paper at the 2nd International Margaret S. Mahler Symposium in Cologne, Germany (1993), an Invited Plenary Paper at the Rencontre Franco-Americaine de Psychanalyse meeting in Paris, France (1994), a Keynote Address at the 43rd IPA Congress in Rio de Janiero, Brazil (2005), the Plenary Address at the 150th Freud Birthday Celebration sponsored by the Dutch Psychoanalytic Society and the Embassy of Austria in Leiden, Holland (2006), the Inaugural Address at the first IPA-Asia Congress in Beijing, China (2010), and the Plenary Address at the Fall Meetings of the American Psychoanalytic Association in 2017.

    Dr Akhtar is the recipient of numerous awards including 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) and Irma Bland Award for being the Outstanding Teacher of Psychiatric Residents in the country (2005). He received the highly prestigious Sigourney Award (2012) for distinguished contributions to psychoanalysis. In 2103, he gave the Commencement Address at graduation ceremonies of the Smith College School of Social Work in Northampton, MA.

    Dr Akhtar’s books have been translated in many languages, including German, Italian, Korean, Romanian, Serbian, Spanish, and Turkish.  A true Renaissance man, Dr Akhtar 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 11 collections of poetry and serves as a Scholar-in-Residence at the Inter-Act Theatre Company in Philadelphia.

     

    Nina Savelle-Rocklin, Psy.D. is a Los Angeles-based psychoanalyst specialising in eating disorders. She is the author of Food for Thought: Perspectives on Eating Disorders and The Binge Cure: 7 Steps to Outsmart Emotional Eating. She also co-edited (with Salman Akhtar) Beyond the Primal Addiction and Food Matters: A Biopsychosocial Approach. She has written articles and book chapters on binge eating, bulimia, and mistrust as it pertains to eating disorders, as well as on the origins and fundamentals of psychoanalysis. She is regularly featured in podcasts, radio shows, print media, and online summits throughout the globe. She hosts The Dr. Nina Show radio program on LA Talk Radio. Her TEDx talk is ‘Why Binge Eating is NOT about Food’.

    Contents

    Contents

    Table of Contents

    Acknowledgments

    About the editors and contributors

    Introduction

    Prologue

    1. The mother’s eye
    Anneliese Riess

    Part I: Developmental Realm

    2. Vision, attachment, and the development of the self
    Toni Mandelbaum

    3. Primal scene and other cocreated “wild things”
    Cemile Serin Gürdal

    Part II: Cultural Realm

    4. The spectrum of sight in literary and psychoanalytic narratives
    Nilofer Kaul

    5. Psychoanalytic aspects of blindness as depicted in three Hollywood films
    Thomas Wolman

    6. The lethal psychic blindness about global warming and nuclear threat
    Alan Michael Karbelnig

    Part III: Clinical Realm

    7. Blindness, psychoanalysis, and the denial of our shared human condition
    Brian Watermeyer

    8. The impact of childhood visual difficulties on adult psychic functioning
    Richard K. Hertel

    9. On feeling watched
    Nina Savelle-Rocklin

    10. Voyeurism
    Salman Akhtar

    Epilogue

    11. The analyst’s eye
    Suzanne Benser

    References

    Index

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