Suna Tanaltay

     Psychologist, poet and writer (b. 22 April 1933, Mersin). She attended Mersin İleri Primary School and graduated from Mersin Tevfik Sırrı Gür High School and Istanbul University, Faculty of Literature, Department of Psychology (1957). She received her psychiatry certificate from Çapa Faculty. She worked as psychology, philosophy and literature teacher at Kandilli High School for Girls (1957) and at Kabataş High School for Boys (1958); she studied as a psychologist at Çapa Psychiatry Clinic (1958-1979). With her husband Dr. Erdoğan Tanaltay, she opened a private clinic. She and her husband traveled around Turkey and held discussions on “Love, Respect and Tolerance”. She gave lessons on “Love and Respect in Relation to the Media and People” at the Turkish Scientific and Technical Research Council.

Her first work, which was a story called İncir Ağacı (Fig Tree), was published in the art page of the newspaper Akşam. Then her poems essays and psychological commentaries were published in the magazines and newspapers Vatan, Milliyet, Günaydın, Posta, Meydan, Sanat Çevresi, Size, Eğitim ve Sağlık, Ses, Hayat, Bebek, Şiir Ülkesi and Ana. She took part in many interviews on television. She has had programs on the Turkish Radio and Television Corporation channels, Star, Channel 6, HBB and Channel 9. She broadcast weekly programs for twenty six years on Turkish radio. Some of her poems were set to music by Fethi Karamahmutoğlu, Ahmet Yeşil and Nevit Kadallı. She is the member of the Writers Syndicate of Turkey, the Turkish Authors Association, the Neuropsychiatry Association, the Psychologists Association and the Poets Association of Mersin.

WORKS:

ESSAY-RESEARCH: Günaydın Raporu / Aile ve Cinsel Sorunlar (Türkiye’de Günaydın Report / Families and Sexual Problems in Turkey, 1979), Her Yaşta Ruh Sağlığı (Mental Health at All Ages, the department of Children and Family, 1986), Sevdikçe (As We Love, 1986), Önce Sevgi Vardı (First There was Love, 1987), Çocuklar Ağlamasın (Don’t Let Children Cry, 1988), Sonsuzu Paylaşanlar (The Ones Sharing Endlessness, 1989), Ben Sevgiyim (I am Love, 1991), Gençlik Sevgidir (Youth is Love, 1992), Düş Sevginin Peşine (Follow Love, 1993), Yaşam Nehri (The River of Life, 1995).

SHORT STORY: Kapıda Bir Gül Açtı (A Rose Bloomed at the Door, 1989), Gül Kokusu (The Smell of a Rose, 1990), Şakayık Sokak (Peony Street, 1994), İskambil Evler (Houses Made of Playing Cards, memoir-short story, 1998), Çocukluğum Bana Kalsın (Let My Childhood Be Only Mine, memoir-short story, 2004).