Foreword

As is our custom, this 12th volume of the Annual presents a selection of the most significant articles to have appeared in our Journal during 2017. 2017 was also the year which saw a handover of the Editorship of the Journal from Giuseppe Civitarese to myself. The Journal plays an important role in collecting and giving voice to the varied expressions of psychoanalytic thought which animate our national scientific community, and by publishing original articles submitted by members and subjected to a rigorous process of review, it has the task of making them known to the society as a whole. The translation into English of certain contributions which have seemed to us to be especially important in their originality, has the purpose of testifying to the lively and distinctive character of Italian psychoanalysis and simultaneously building a bridge to the international community.

Starting with the second issue of 2017, the Journal has introduced a new section called Focus, designed as a vehicle for a specific subject to be explored in depth and discussed by three psychoanalysts with expertise in the chosen theme. This is followed by a brief discussion of their papers by two other colleagues.

This edition of the Annual includes the three articles featured in the first Focus and dedicated to the theme of the analyst's analytic identity. Lucio Russo addresses the distinctive nature of the topic which in his opinion is expressed in analytic work that is founded on the breaking of common sense and logic. The analytic work which confers meaning on the analyst's identity is expressed in the realm of fantasy. The device to which Russo is referring and which becomes ever more obvious when the analytic function is in danger of being annulled, consists of the analytic relationship and self-analysis. Self-analysis is particularly helpful because it concerns the analyst's negative capability, the ability to create a third, differentiating element between the analysand's psyche and tha