Franks and Saracens

Dr Avner Falk is an internationally-known Israeli scholar in the interdisciplinary fields of psychohistory and political psychology. In addition to a long career in clinical psychology and psychotherapy, he has published dozens of articles and ten books in these fields, as well as in psychobiography, psychogeography, the psychoanalysis of literature, and other areas of applied psychoanalysis. His psychobiography of Barack Obama is due to be published in summer 2010.

• About the Author , Preface , Us and them , Romans, Germans, and Berbers , Frankish myths of origin , From Franks to Crusaders , The fantasy of the “Holy Roman Empire” , A short history of the “Saracens” , The First Crusade: a “pilgrimage” to rescue the “Holy Land” , The fantastic “Kingdom of Jerusalem” , The Second Crusade: persisting fantasies , Templars and Hospitallers: monkish knights , The “Saracens” look at the “Franks” , The Third Crusade: a “lion-hearted” king in search of a “holy land” , The Fourth Crusade: Christians massacre Christians , The Fifth Crusade: a fantastic invasion of Egypt , The Sixth Crusade: winning Jerusalem peacefully , The Seventh Crusade: the unhappy war of “Saint Louis” , The Eighth Crusade: “Saint Louis” fails again and dies , The Ninth Crusade: the last fantasy , Aftermath: the end of a two-century fantasy , “The new Crusaders”