TEHRAN – “The Abyss of Madness” by the American clinical psychology expert George E. Atwood has been published in Persian by Now.

First published in 2011, the book has been co-translated by Peyvand Jalali and Arash Mehrkesh.

Despite the many ways in which the so-called psychoses can become manifest, they are ultimately human events arising out of human contexts. 

As such, they can be understood in an intersubjective manner, removing the stigmatizing boundary between madness and sanity. 

Utilizing the post-Cartesian psychoanalytic approach of phenomenological contextualism, as well as almost 50 years of clinical experience, George Atwood presents detailed case studies depicting individuals in crisis and the successes and failures that occurred in their treatment. 

Topics range from depression to schizophrenia, bipolar disorder to dreams, dissociative states to suicidality. 

Throughout is an emphasis on the underlying essence of humanity demonstrated in even the most extreme cases of psychological and emotional disturbance, and both the surprising highs and tragic lows of the search for the inner truth of a life – that of the analyst as well as the patient.

Atwood’s major interests include personality theory, psychotherapy and the psychology of knowledge. 

He has focused in recent years on the study of psychotic states, on the analysis of the psychological sources of philosophical systems, and on exploring the complex relationships between madness and creative genius. 

Two books that are representative of these interests are: “Faces in a Cloud: Intersubjectivity in Personality Theory” (1993, coauthored by Robert Stolorow) and “Worlds of Experience: Interweaving Clinical and Philosophical Dimensions in Psychoanalysis (2002, coauthored by Robert Stolorow and Donna Orange.)

Photo: Front cover of the Persian edition of George E. Atwood’s book “The Abyss of Madness”.

MMS/YAW