Commentary on "Psychoanalytic Discourse at the Turn of Our Century: A Plea for a Measure of Humility"

As editor of JAPA for the last ten years but, equally, as a writer, a critic, and a contributor to the theoretical and organizational developments in psychoanalysis, Arnold Richards looks out over a broad landscape, well beyond the confines of the American Psychoanalyion. Hd landscape, well beyond the confines of the American Psychoanalytic Associate does not limit himself to technical issues or specific clinical theoretical questions concerning the American or any other psychoanalytic group. Instead he enlarges his perimeter to include moves and adjustments within the broader theoretical and clinical psychoanalytic scene.

Richards travels through several decades, actually through the greater part of our psychoanalytic century, observing the changes brought about within American psychoanalytic groups, mostly by analysts who found refuge in the United States after the Second World War. He further documents the key developments that in recent decades have contributed to what can be seen as a paradigm shift in psychoanalysis—the move from an emphasis primarily on drive/conflict to a focus on relational issues.

Richards first outlines the moves within the British analytic groups and then documents the influence of these moves on the activities of