Foreword

The monographic edition of the Rivista di Psicoanalisi (1/2021), dedicated to the topic of «The transmission of psychoanalysis», is the final issue of my editorship and of the present editorial team. We are grateful to our colleagues who have followed and read our work for these 4 years, just as we are grateful to all those who have contributed to the Rivista with their writing. Our thanks to them all.

The theme we have chosen, «The transmission of psychoanalysis», is a central one for our discipline, concerning not only the training and education of candidates but the very forms in which our knowledge is passed from one generation to the next. It seemed all the more timely to reflect on these topics, when we thought about the historical moment we are going through. Not only has a debate begun about the models and parameters of training, as is shown by the discussion of the Eitingon variations, but the pandemic has compelled us to review aspects of the setting hitherto considered «inviolable».

Transmission and education are not identical, even if they have many points in common. Indeed, education implies and includes transmission, but represents a sphere within which other aspects and dimensions are present, going well beyond what can be described as transmission. The first group of articles insists on these questions. Then the edition divides into four sections, each aiming to explore in more depth specific aspects of psychoanalytic transmission.

The first of these is dedicated to a central crux which characterises the ways in which our discipline is transmitted: in other words, the interplay between experiential and cognitive moments which distinguishes psychoanalytic education. Indeed, the experience of personal analysis and training analysis stands alongside the learning and use we make of our theories and knowledge.

The Authors who address this reflect on the relationship and balance between these two aspects. in the second section a very sensitive question is addr