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THE AMERICAN BICENTENNIAL prompts us to consider the history of our own Association, and we take this opportunity to recall the evolution of one of its most important scientific activities—the publication of the Journal. To do this is to pay tribute to the man most closely associated with the Journal from its birth to its maturity—John Frosch.
Back in 1947, the officers of the Association asked John Frosch to start a Newsletter. He quickly saw that the amount of material would require more than a Newsletter, and so the Bulletin, precursor to the Journal, was revived (it had existed briefly in a different format between 1937 and 1940). Dr. Frosch was given free rein, and the Bulletin, containing news of the activities of the psychoanalytic scene and proceedings of the local societies, bore his unmistakable mark. It was informal, informative, interesting, and dignified. The Bulletins still make for fascinating reading and are historically valuable as well. The following year, summaries of the small discussion groups held at Association meetings were being published. These were the forerunners of the panels and of the workshops still so popular today. By 1950, the Bulletin had so increased in bulk, the Editor suggested to the Executive Council that the time might be ripe for a larger publication. Three years later, the first issue of the Journal appeared, with John Frosch as Editor.
Those early years were fraught with problems. Not all psychoanalysts thought there was a need for another journal; the question of how the new journal could best function and contribute to psychoanalysis had to be elaborated and resolved; each decision had to be carefully weighed, for each