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FUNDAMENTALLY, OURS IS A SCIENTIFIC JOURNAL. It represents the contribution we as a profession make to the advancement of human knowledge; in our case it also holds out the promise of healing troubled spirits. Thus, our journal is not only a medium for communicating ideas within our discipline, but it is also the interface of psychoanalysis with the world of science and with the public at large. Over this grave responsibility presides the Editor of the Journal of the American Psychoanalytic Association. We should congratulate each other and thank the Search Committee who some dozen years ago recognized real quality in a comparatively unknown, truly young man in psychoanalysis, and nominated him for the post of Editor. We must also thank the Executive Council for confirming the appointment with swiftness and effectiveness.
In spite of the many ways the Editor is involved with coeditors, authors, office staff, publisher, and so forth, being Editor is fundamentally a lonely job. The responsibility is awesome, for he is the final arbiter of what ideas see the light of day and become part of the general domain of psychoanalytic thought. Exercising such authority to a very considerable degree, the Editor sets his imprint, his views, and his understanding on the nature and direction of psychoanalysis. Doing this, he must be discerning, objective, and fair-minded, yet firm enough not to