2nd Edition

Franks and Saracens A Psychoanalytic Study of the Crusades

By Avner Falk Copyright 2025
218 Pages
by Routledge

218 Pages
by Routledge

218 Pages
by Routledge

Franks and Saracens is the first and only book to examine the Crusades from the viewpoint of psychoanalysis, studying the hidden emotions and fantasies that drove the Crusaders and the Muslims to undertake their terrible wars. Using original documents as well as secondary sources, Avner Falk demonstrates that the deepest and most powerful motives for the Crusades were not only religious or... Read more

Acknowledgements

Preface

Chapter 1. Us And Them

Chapter 2. Romans, Germans, and Berbers

Chapter 3. Myths of Origin

Chapter 4. The Cross and the Crusades

Chapter 5. The Fantasy of the Holy Roman Empire

Chapter 6. A Short History of the “Saracens”

Chapter 7. The First Crusade: Acting Out Rescue Fantasies

Chapter 8. The Latin Kingdom of Jerusalem as a Psychogeographical Fantasy

Chapter 9. The Second Crusade: Persisting Rescue Fantasies

Chapter 10. Templars And Hospitallers: Monastic Knights?

Chapter 11. The “Saracens” Look at The “Franks”

Chapter 12. The Third Crusade: A Lionheart in Search of a Holy Land?

Chapter 13. The Fourth Crusade: “Latin” Christians Kill “Greek” Christians

Chapter 14. The Fifth Crusade: An Invasion of Egypt that Predictably Fails

Chapter 15. The Sixth Crusade: Winning Jerusalem Peacefully

Chapter 16. The Seventh Crusade: The Unhappy War of “Saint Louis”

Chapter 17. The Eighth Crusade: The Tragic Death of “Saint Louis”

Chapter 18. The Ninth Crusade: End of a Two-Century Fantasy

Chapter 19. Trauma in the Crusades

Chapter 20. Aftermath: The End Of A Two-Century Fantasy

 

Epilogue: “The New Crusaders”

Bibliography

Index

Biography

Dr Avner Falk (born 1943) is an internationally known Israeli clinical psychologist and independent scholar. His scholarly specialty is applied psychoanalysis, including psychohistory, psychobiography, political psychology, and psychogeography. He has published 11 books and dozens of articles. His most recent book is Agnon’s Story: A Psychoanalytic Biography of S. Y. Agnon, the winner of the 1966 Nobel Prize in Literature (Brill 2018).

“The Crusades that occurred between 1095 and 1291 are among the most violent and ruthless events in human history. Their religious, historical, political, and economic aspects have been extensively studied. Avner Falk’s unusual book, first published in 2010, focuses on the psychodynamic aspects involved in carrying out the Crusades. It illustrates how both individual and large-group fantasies and behaviors, such as perceiving our own large group as 'good' and the Other as 'bad,' the need to establish psychological borders between 'enemy' large groups, the difficulties in collective mourning and the psychology of shared trauma, played roles in the Crusades. This new version of this important book includes an expanded, up-to-date bibliography and a new chapter on the traumatic aspects of the Crusades.”

Vamık D. Volkan, M.D., Professor Emeritus of Psychiatry, University of Virginia; Past President, International Society of Political Psychology, American College of Psychoanalysts and International Dialogue Initiative