Iranian thinker
Mohammad Sanati
Mohammad SanatiPsychoanalysis and Literary CriticismIranian
In our society, violence works: this is a belief that has emerged in our society, and everyone seems to speak in its praise and live by it... If such a belief arises in a society, I deeply pity its condition; because that society has, in truth, risen against itself, and it must be said that it bears enmity toward itself.
Life and Thought
Mohammad Sanati (born 1945 in Isfahan) is an Iranian psychiatrist, psychoanalyst, writer, and literary critic, and an associate professor at Tehran University of Medical Sciences. He is considered one of the pioneers in introducing and expanding psychoanalysis in Iran and received the 'Extraordinarily Meritorious Service to Psychoanalysis' award from the International Psychoanalytical Association (IPA) in 2019. His works are primarily focused on the psychological analysis of literature, cinema, and Iranian culture.
Mohammad Sanati was born in 1945 in Isfahan. He completed his elementary education at Hedayat Elementary School and secondary education at Saadi High School, receiving his diploma in 1963. That same year, he entered the Faculty of Medicine at the University of Tehran and graduated in 1970. He then went to England for specialized studies, completing his psychiatry training at the Institute of Psychiatry in London. He is a member of the Royal College of Psychiatrists in England, and upon returning to Iran, he began working from the 1980s as a faculty member and associate professor in the Psychiatry Department of Roozbeh Hospital and Tehran University of Medical Sciences.
Sanati is among the first individuals to seriously and academically pursue psychoanalysis and analytical psychotherapy in Iran. He began psychotherapy and analytical group therapy in Tehran in December 1985 and for years served as the head of the Psychotherapy Committee of the Iranian Psychiatric Association and the director of the Psychotherapy Unit at Roozbeh Hospital. His efforts in subsequent decades led to the inclusion of psychotherapy in specialized academic programs and the organization of the first psychoanalysis congresses in Iran. In 2019, the International Psychoanalytical Association (IPA), founded by Sigmund Freud, awarded him the 'Extraordinarily Meritorious Service to Psychoanalysis' prize for dedicating his professional life to the advancement of psychoanalytic thought in Iran.
Sanati's important works lie at the intersection of psychoanalysis, literature, and cinema. Among his books are 'Sadegh Hedayat and the Fear of Death' (a psychoanalytic analysis of The Blind Owl and Hedayat's world), 'Psychological Analyses in Art and Literature,' and 'Time and Immortality in Tarkovsky's Cinema.' In these works, using an interdisciplinary approach, he applies psychoanalytic concepts to the reading of literary texts and cinematic films, addressing themes such as death, myth, mentality, and contemporary Iranian culture. Sanati has also been active in television and cinema screenwriting under the pseudonym 'Mohammad Azari.'
