Eyes, Mind and Vision: Visual Realities and Metaphors in Psychoanalysis

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 43^rd IPA Congress in Rio de Janiero, Brazil (2005), the Plenary Address at the 150^th 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, Nina Savelle-Rocklin is a psychoanalyst, author, and podcast host. She is the author of Food for Thought: Perspectives on Eating Disorders (Rowman & Littlefield) and co-editor (with Salman Akhtar) of Beyond the Primal Addiction (Karnac Books) and Food Matters: A Biopsychosocial Approach (Phoenix Publishing House). She also wrote The Binge Cure: 7 Steps to Outsmart Emotional Eating and its companion workbook, The Binge Cure Journal, as well as Beyond Binge Eating: 100 Powerful Reflections to Transform Your Relationship with Food. Dr. Savelle-Rocklin contributed chapters in four scholarly books, including her chapter “The origins and fundamentals of psychoanalysis” (in Freud & The Buddha), and wrote more than fifty articles on disordered eating for publications such as Psyche Online and Psychology Today, the National Eating Disorders Association, Eating Disorder Hope, and other national and international organizations and publications. Her media appearances include being a featured guest on “The Dr. Drew Podcast” and more than twenty radio shows and podcasts worldwide. Her radio program, “The Dr. Nina Show,” on L.A. Talk Radio aired for more than six years and can now be heard as a podcast. Her other podcasts include “The Forking Truth,” “Mind Matters,” and “The Binge Cure with Dr. Nina.” Dr. Savelle-Rocklin is also on the board of Rose City Center, a psychoanalytically informed flexible fee counseling and training center, where she is the director of the Development Committee.