The Politics of Psychoanalysis

The associate editors of JAPA, wishing to honor Arnold D. Richards as he concludes his ten-year term as editor, contemplated a fitting tribute. The key elements we sought were that the tribute involve JAPA; that it highlight Arnold's abiding interest in historiography in general, and the American Psychoanalytic Association's history in particular; and that it exemplify the qualities that he has brought to the journal during the decade of his watch. Arnold's tenure at JAPA has been characterized by openness and inclusion, welcoming dialogue, and even debate, without fear of controversy.

A JAPA supplement, then, seemed the appropriate vehicle in which to combine these elements. Arnold's paper—“A Plea for a Measure of Humility”—forms the supplement's nidus, generating reactions, commentaries, and perspectives from discussants representing the diversity of our profession. Invited to respond were the editors or past editors of several leading psychoanalytic journals: Jay Greenberg and Donnel Stern (former and current editors of Contemporary Psychoanalysis), Arnold Cooper (former North American editor of the International Journal of Psychoanalysis), Theodore Shapiro (former editor of JAPA), Owen Renik and Henry Smith (former and current editors of Psychoanalytic Quarterly), Eva Lester (editor of the Canadian Journal of Psychoanalysis), and Neil Altman and Jody Davies (editors of Psychoanalytic Dialogues). So eager were these discussants to join the debate that two of the responses exceeded the limits of JAPA's usual target paper / commentaries format. Those contributions—by Smith and by Altman and Davies—appear as free-standing papers after the six briefer commentaries (the second of these papers has itself generated a spirited response).

Opening the issue and setting the stage are plenaries by Robert Pyles, Richard P. Fox, and Owen Renik, each of which touches on the overall topic of the supplement: the politics of psychoanalysis.

Politics is often a taboo subject in psycho