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I begin this introduction by offering thanks to all of the authors, individually and as a group, who have generously contributed to this Special Issue on Truth and Lies. Earlier versions of these papers, except for Civitarese's contribution which was invited later, were presented in the runup to or during the Thirteenth International Evolving British Object Relations Conference held online over two weekends in October 2022 and sponsored by Northwestern Psychoanalytic Society and Institute located in Seattle, Washington (USA). Given the pressing nature of the conference and Special Issue theme—there isn't a day that goes by without my reading a newspaper article or hearing a radio or television journalist reporting on the topic of truth and concerns over the spread of disinformation, deepfakes, and lies (including an alarming increase of fake studies in academic journals2)—it seems imperative to share these papers as a collection in a timely manner.
On the matter of timing, I'm grateful to AJP Editor-in-Chief Giselle Galdi for allowing me the opportunity to serve as Guest Editor and collaborate with esteemed psychoanalyst authors in order to expeditiously bring this special issue of the journal to print. Her professionalism, generosity of spirit, and good humor made the publication process from start to finish truly pleasurable. Additionally, I wish to thank Joseph Aguayo for kindly offering invaluable comments on an earlier draft of my own paper in this issue.
In the following section I comment on the relationship between truth and lies and suggest that it is far from straightforward. I then synopsize each author's contribution in the same order as they appear in the Table of Contents highlighting central themes, how each author defines truth and lies, and conclusions drawn, both theoretical and clinical. I conclude with some observations of the similarities and differences in how the authors engage the topic and suggest that this enriches our understanding of truth a