Greed: Developmental, Cultural, and Clinical Realms

by Salman Akhtar (Editor)

Overview

Though references to it are scattered in the writings of Klein and Winnicott, the topic of greed has drawn meagre attention from contemporary psychoanalysts. This book fills that lacuna. Noting that the inconsolable, relentless, and coercive dimensions of such hunger have profoundly destructive impact upon the self and its objects, Greed: Developmental, Cultural, and Clinical Realms sheds light on the emotion's myriad manifestations as well as its camouflage by the ego's defensive operations. Issues of childhood deprivation, adolescent novelty-seeking, and clinging to the object-world toward the end of life are examined. The avarice that prevails in today's business world is discussed, as is the deleterious impact of greed upon marital relations. More to the clinician's interest, the book highlights the various ways in which greed makes its appearance during treatment, taking into account the tabooed topic of the analyst's own greed for money, prestige, and intellectual prowess. A remarkable contribution, indeed!

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781782202554
Publisher:	Taylor & Francis
Publication date:	06/26/2015
Pages:	264
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 8.90(h) x 0.80(d)

About the Author

Salman Akhtar was born in India and completed his medical and psychiatric education there. Upon arriving in the USA in 1973, he repeated his psychiatric training at the University of Virginia School of Medicine, and then obtained psychoanalytic training from the Philadelphia Psychoanalytic Institute. Currently, he is Professor of Psychiatry at Jefferson Medical College and a training and supervising analyst at the Psychoanalytic Center of Philadelphia. He has authored, edited or co-edited more than 300 publications including books on psychiatry and psychoanalysis and several collections of poetry. He is also a Scholar-in-Residence at the InterAct Theatre Company in Philadelphia. Salman Akhtar received the Sigourney Award in 2012.

Table of Contents

Introduction , Developmental Realm , The development of greed in childhood , Anticipatory greed and compensatory greed as developmental steps during adolescence , Primal greed, developmental greed, and terminal greed , Cultural Realm , Greed in the life of William Shakespeare and generosity in the life of Edward De Vere, aka Shakespeare , Corporate greed and the new class system , Greed in Hollywood movies , Clinical Realm , Meanings, manifestations, and management of greed , Greed in the context of marriage and other close relationships , Greed, greediness, and greedy patients , The analyst's greed