Psychoanalysis and the Challenge of Islam - Softcover

Benslama, Fethi

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0816648891 ISBN 13: 9780816648894

Publisher: Univ Of Minnesota Press, 2009

Synopsis

Unveils the psychoanalytic undercurrents of contemporary Islam

Fethi Benslama is a psychoanalyst who, although a secular thinker, identifies himself as a person of Muslim culture who rejects ready-made explanations for Islamic fundamentalism. In that spirit, Benslama demythifies both Islam and Western ideas of the religion by addressing the psychoanalytic root causes of the Muslim world’s clash with modernity and subsequent turn to fundamentalism.

Tracing this ideological strain to its origins, Benslama shows that contemporary Islam consists of a fairly recent hybridization of Arab nationalism, theocracy, and an attempt (both naïve and deadly) to ground science in faith. Combining textual analysis and Lacanian and Freudian psychoanalysis, he examines Islam’s foundation, providing fresh readings of the book of Genesis, the Koran, The Arabian Nights, and the work of medieval Islamic philosophers.

Refreshingly, Benslama writes without ideological bias and undoes the simplistic, Western view of Islam while refusing to romanticize terrorism or Muslim extremism. This is a penetrating work that reveals an alternate history of the Islamic religion and opens new possibilities for its future development.

About this title

About the Author

Fethi Benslama teaches at the University of Paris VII and is the editor of the psychoanalytic journal Intersignes.

Edition details

• Publisher: Univ Of Minnesota Press
• Publication date: 2009
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0816648891
• ISBN 13: 9780816648894
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 272