Tales of Transformation

‘I enjoyed hearing about the process of psychotherapy, the delicate balancing act of therapeutic interpretation and the thought processes behind disclosure. [...] Overall, this book allows the reader to see one analysts 50 year journey and witnessed the ever changing theoretical landscape of psychoanalysis and psychotherapy’

-- Nick Campion, integrative psychotherapist in Derby, 'Therapy Today' September 2022

'Indeed, I can think of no other book I would regard as so warmly written and as so deeply engaging as this one. When I received my copy in the post, I began to immerse myself into the text straightaway [...] As most colleagues will appreciate, the well-known and much admired Salman Akhtar writes in rather a unique style. Not only does he convey his tremendous clinical wisdom with clarity and with generosity but, moreover, he communicates in an affable and often witty manner, incorporating both his mental health expertise and, also, his long-standing experience as a poet, who has published in Urdu and in English. In consequence, I find the prose of Salman Akhtar as invigorating as that of Sigmund Freud. [...] This gripping memoir, which kept me awake until 4 a.m., remains perhaps the most outstanding of all — a true encapsulation of the mind and heart and soul of a very special person indeed.'

-- Professor Brett Kahr, Journal of the American Psychoanalytic Association, 72:2

Salman Akhtar is a brilliant scholar, a superb integrator of ideas, and one of the most original minds in modern psychoanalysis.

-- Peter Fonagy

Salman Akhtar is one of the most learned but also lyrical and imaginative medical men who ever graced the field of psychoanalysis.

-- Rosemary Balsam

If, by a magical process, you were able to generate a unique individual with an encyclopedic mind, an indefatigable search for scientific knowledge, a superb scholar and teacher, and a poet able to movingly convey human ecstasies and tragedy, you would have created a replica of Salman Akhtar.

-- Otto Kernberg

In my very first meeting with Salman Akhtar, whom I had already read, I was amazed by his kind simplicity allied with princely refinement. Salman is a poet, a storyteller and has a rare quality that I would call ‘heartfelt civility.’

-- Marilia Aisenstein

His amiability and enthusiasm, his curiosity and creativity, his eagerness to share and teach make Salman Akhtar an admirable psychoanalyst and a memorable man.

-- Vamik Vo