Sacred Psychoanalysis - etheses Repository - University of ...

treatment’ (Ad-Bab'bagh 2001: 283). Ad-Bad’bagh argues that some integration may be
possible on the basis of the quality of the therapeutic relationship rather than any
psychoanalytic interpretation. Etezady develops this idea arguing that Muslim patients, just
like other religiously devout patients may be helped at an intra-psychic level in removing
‘obstacles from access to their own personal truth and ultimate judgement’ (Etezady 2001:
318). Religious belief can therefore be refined from problematic object relations that adhere
to it, but not ultimately replaced by psychoanalysis. Fayek highlights the textual nature of
Islam and psychoanalysis arguing for a hermeneutic approach that engages with issues of
ethnic identity and narcissism. He identifies issues in Islam that can benefit from
psychoanalysis, but sees that despite tensions existing between the two they can add to each
other (Fayek 2004). Pfunder writing from a Sufi tradition adopts an inclusive, experiential
approach. ‘Eigen, Winnicott, Bion, and Kristeva, and the alchemical writer Schwartz-
Salant, dance together with Sufi writers like Hafiz, Corbin, Sells, and Schimmel … where
many visions orbit in shifting constellations around the unknowable mystery of mysteries’
(Pfunder 2005: 134).
A key figure in developing Muslim and psychoanalytic relationships is Salman Akhtar,
whose edited texts (including those quoted above) culminated in The Crescent and the
Couch: Cross-currents between Islam and Psychoanalysis (Akhtar 2008). This multi-
disciplinary text is hard to summarize but Brenner describes this as ‘a work of vision,
brilliance, persistence and courage’ (Brenner 2009: 228) concluding,
Akhtar says, in his Introduction, that this book is his attempt ‘to bring the awesome
history and rich, cultural traditions of Islam to enter into a dialectic exchange with
multilayered conceptualizations of psychoanalysis’ and that the contributors’ voices
create ‘an intelligent symphony of insight where Islamic history and thought meet
psychoanalysis’. I would say he and his contributors have met that goal beautifully
and exceeded it. It is truly a unique contribution at the most timely point in our
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