This book explores the creative dialogue that psychoanalysts since Freud have had with the modern Northern European/North American culture of individualism, focusing on psychoanalysis which is applied to those from Asian cultures.

Drawing on work with Indian and Japanese patients, a prominent American psychoanalyst explores inner worlds that are markedly different from the Western psyche. A series of fascinating case studies illustrates Alan Roland's argument: the "familial self," rooted in the subtle emotional hierarchical relationships of the family and group, predominates in Indian and Japanese psyches and contrasts strongly with the Western "individualized self." In perceptive and sympathetic terms Roland describes the emotional problems that occur when Indians and Japanese encounter Western culture and the resulting successful integration of new patterns that he calls the "expanding self." Of particular interest are descriptions of the special problems of women in changing society and of the paradoxical relationship of the "spiritual self" of Indians and Japanese to the "familial self."

Also described is Roland's own response to the broadening of his emotional and intellectual horizons as he talked to patients and supervised therapists in India and Japan. "As we were coming in for a landing to Bombay," he writes, "the plane banked so sharply that when I supposedly looked down all I could see were the stars, while if I looked up, there were the lights of the city." This is the "world turned upside down" that he describes so eloquently in this book. What he has learned will fascinate those who wish to deepen their understanding of a different way of being.

A psychological study of the Bengal Partition, a traumatic time that continues to resonate. Why has it been so hard for Bengal to recover from this catastrophe, shared with the people of Punjab, who faced much more brutal and horrendous violence over a short period? Was it due to very different historical circumstances? The refugees were targets of soft violence, an extreme form of mental assault that chilled them with fear till they fled. They could not tell whether old friends had become new foes. Were they imagining this or perhaps it was a true reading of the situation? Departures were spread over many years, preventing a sharper break with the past, prolonging their confusion over identity, the grief of being uprooted, of feeling unwelcome in the truncated state of West Bengal. The author interviews a number of respondents who were young children or adolescents from the bhadralok, the educated section of society, to gauge their understanding of Partition and how it affects their lives. She uses the insights of psychoanalysis and cognitive psychology. Alan Roland, the distinguished psychoanalyst, talks of how the depth of these interviews and Basus psychological understanding of each person give a new understanding of memory and the reconstruction of Partition in peoples mind.

The integration of religion into psychotherapy finds expression in the therapist's stance and response to those who seek help. The editors have gathered papers that demonstrate through extensive autobiographical material the relationship between personal religious experience and clinical work. The contributing authors, without exception, confront psychoanalytic theory and religious teachings in highly personal ways.

Views dissenting from the status quo in psychoanalysis are presented in four areas: Psychoanalysis and Early Dissidents, The Psychoanalytic Process, Psychoanalysis and Culture, and Psychoanalysis and Religion. Authors introduce ideas on the analyst's freedom and imagination, the use of humor and play, and the importance of small talk, as well as new perspectives on understanding and working with trauma. The section on psychoanalysis and culture addresses an area rarely considered in psychoanalysis today, regardless of theoretical model. As the global culture becomes more salient, clinicians can ignore the issues of culture with a diversity of patients only to their detriment. The volume's final attention to psychoanalysis and religion frames a new paradigm for understanding mysticism and the relationship to psychopathology to spiritual disciplines and experiences.

`In this groundbreaking book, Alan Roland's stated purpose it to integrate psychoanalysis with art and the artist. For those treating artists, or those who want to bring greater understanding of the creative process into their consciousness, this book is indispensable' - Psychologist-Psychoanalyst Newsletter Alan Roland is both a highly respected psychoanalyst and an exhibiting artist, giving him a fresh perspective on psychoanalytic studies of art and the artist. Here he argues for an interdisciplinary integration of psychoanalysis with art and artistic criticism, and against the reductionism of applied psychoanalysis. Exploring the artistic process and the concept of the artistic self in terms of self-objects and transformational objects, Roland challenges the basic assumption of applied psychoanalysis - that the work of art is a dream or daydream expressed within a formal aesthetic framework. Written in an accessible, non-technical style, this book will appeal to anyone with an interest in psychoanalytic criticism or psychoanalytical theories of dreams and creativity.

The influence of culture and sociohistorical change on all aspects of the psyche and on psychoanalytic theory is the missing dimension in psychoanalysis. This dimension is especially relevant to clinicians in the mental health field, whether psychoanalyst, psychologist, psychiatrist, social worker or marriage counsellor to enable them to understand what is at stake in working with those from various Asian cultures in North America and European societies. It is even more relevant than most clinicians realize to working with those from one's own culture. This volume explores the creative dialogue that the major psychoanalysts since Freud have had with the modern Northern European/North American culture of individualism; and tries to resolve major problems that occur when psychoanalysis, with its cultural legacy of individualism, is applied to those from various Asian cultures. The author first examines the theoretical issues involved in developing a multicultural psychoanalysis.