Wandering Souls (eBook)

Tobie Nathan is Professor Emeritus of Psychology at the University Paris-VIII and the founder of the first ethnopsychiatric clinic in France.

Contents

Acknowledgements
Prologue
1. Secularity and the War of the Gods
2. The Veil as Membrane
3. Filiation and Affiliation
4. Conversion and Initiation
5. Apocalypse
6. Hashish and Assassins
7. Terror
8. Abandoned Children are Political Beings
9. The Foreignness of Migrant Children
10. Generations
Epilogue

'Wandering Souls is uplifting and insightful, inviting readers to overcome natural reactions of fear, rejection and intellectual paralysis in the face of young people attracted to radical Islam and instead to start thinking again, to make possible alternative pathways for these youths, by entering into their worlds, understanding their questions, their predicaments and those of their parents. Vivid case examples are intertwined with the first-person narration of the author's own experience as an immigrant child in France in a deeply moving book that reads like a novel.'
Catherine Grandsard, University of Paris 8 Saint-Denis

'The "wandering souls" in Tobie Nathan's book are troubled lives, mainly migrants seeking refuge in France from disorder and danger in the Middle East and sub-Saharan Africa. Many of these lives remain restless and unanchored after resettlement in Europe. Some of them find a place reserved in Islam, occasionally among jihadists, while others pick up where they left off, wandering once again. Nathan's excellent ethnographic account is faithful to the wanderings of these souls rather than the expectations of readers addicted to happy endings.'
Allan Young, McGill University

"Distill(s) a lifetime's experience and wisdom [...] His study fizzes with insights."
Church Times