In this, the latest in a series of books examining emotional states and psychological life, Salman Akhtar and Aisha Abbasi critically discuss a concept that remains, appropriately perhaps, elusive and hard to define: privacy.
Overlapping with ideas of solitude, secrecy, and anonymity, the concept of privacy poses several crucial questions for analysts. How do our ideas of privacy evolve from childhood through adolescence to adulthood, for example, and when does the need for privacy become morbid and psychopathological? How is privacy conceived differently in different cultures and sub-cultures? Investigating the tension between anonymity and self-disclosure, the book also assesses the challenges posed to clinical privacy, as well as the analyst’s own privacy, by the impact of social media and the wider digital age.
Privacy: Developmental, Cultural, and Clinical Realms represents an important contribution to psychoanalytic literature. It will be of great interest to psychoanalysts and psychotherapists in practice and training as well as to researchers interested in the concept of privacy from across the applied and social sciences and the humanities.
Table of Contents:
Introduction Prologue 1. Privacy: An introductory overview (Salman Akhtar) Part I: Developmental realm 2. The development of a sense of privacy (Alexandra Harrison) 3. What we can learn about confidentiality from children and adolescents (Jack Novick and Kerry Kelly Novick) 4. Privacy, ruthless love, incest barrier, and the genital screen (Thomas Wolman) Part II: Cultural realm 5. Cross-cultural perspectives on privacy (Pratyusha Tummala-Narra) 6. Reflections on the privacy of self and the drive to create in the context of dislocation (Jaswant Guzder) 7. The dilemmas of privacy in the Anne Sexton controversy (Paul Mosher and Jeffrey Berman) Part III: Clinical realm 8. On self-disclosure (Theodore J. Jacobs) 9. Privacy in child therapy (Ann G. Smolen) 10. The fine tension between the analyst’s need for privacy and the patient’s curiosity about the analyst (Aisha Abbasi) Epilogue 11. Between intimacy and privacy: A concluding commentary (Lorrie Chopra)
About the Author :
Salman Akhtar, MD, is Professor of Psychiatry at Jefferson Medical College, and Supervising and Training Analyst at the Psychoanalytic Center of Philadelphia, USA. A prolific contributor to psychoanalytic literature, he has authored or edited ninety-six books. He received the prestigious Sigourney Award in 2012.
Aisha Abbasi, MD, is a Training and Supervising Analyst at the Michigan Psychoanalytic Institute, USA, and an Associate Editor of the Journal of the American Psychoanalytic Association. She is the author of The Rupture of Serenity: External Intrusions and Psychoanalytic Technique (Routledge, 2014).
Review :
"Akhtar and Abbasi have brought together a number of illustrious contributors to elucidate a topic of vital importance. ‘Privacy’ is relevant not only to psychotherapists and their patients but to all of us in our daily lives despite varying cultural, developmental and clinical definitions. All human beings have a private part of themselves that should be respected. The editors and their contributors underline and broaden the meaning of our precious ‘right’ to physical and mental privacy. This discourse is urgently needed in this day and age in which the ‘right to privacy’ is under siege." Mary Kay O’Neil, PhD, Supervising and Training Psychoanalyst, Canadian Institute of Psychoanalysis, Toronto
"This fascinating book on privacy deserves, ironically, to become widely known. It brings attention to a vitally important but somewhat ignored topic which has been hiding in plain sight for too long. The delineation of the subjective realm we deem private turns out to have developmental roots, cultural variations, clinical applications, and political implications. This volume is essential reading , especially in this cyber era, where the right to privacy and the value of privacy is challenged on a daily basis." Ira Brenner, MD, Training and Supervising Analyst, Psychoanalytic Center of Philadelphia
