Salman Akhtar (born July 31, 1946, Uttar Pradesh) is a psychoanalyst practicing in the United States. He is an author and Professor of Psychiatry and Human Behavior at Jefferson Medical College in Philadelphia. He was born into a Muslim family in Khairabad, Uttar Pradesh to Jan Nisar Akhtar, a Bollywood film songwriter and Urdu poet, and singer Safia Akhtar, a teacher and writer. He is the brother veteran poet and film lyricist Javed Akhtar.