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For those of us who have grown up with it, the arrival of The Psychoanalytic Study of the Child's 49th volume is an awe-inspiring harbinger of a momentous impending anniversary. For just short of fifty years—half the life of psychoanalysis itself—the Study has brought to its readers many of the critical developments in psychoanalytic theory, clinical practice, and extraclinical applications. It has been a favored tribune for some of the great figures in the field in both child and adult realms within the framework of the Freudian mainstream, largely but not exclusively in the United States and Britain. This long-established formula is maintained in the current number, although the preponderant weight of contributions this time is from this side of the Atlantic.
The centennial of Heinz Hartmann's birth provides a running theme for much of the volume's content. Hartmann was, with Anna Freud and Ernst Kris, one of the founding editors of the Study, and many of his seminal contributions to ego psychology appeared in its pages. I have had the impression that, regrettably, his works are little read nowadays, particularly by candidates in training, and as a former student of his I find it gratifying to see here renewed attention to his indispensable work. His son Lawrence offers a sensitive “filial memoir” that provides a biographical backdrop to the conceptual issues addressed in several subsequent essays.