Reflections on the Past as Prologue

My tenure as the second editor of Journal of the American Psychoanalytic Association followed the remarkable twenty years of John Frosch's founding editorship. With the support of his polymath associate editor, Nathaniel Ross, and a distinguished editorial board, an outstanding journal was created at the forefront of psychoanalytic discourse. I had a tough act to follow.

I will comment on my experience as editor, some changes in the journal itself, and some of the significant trends in psychoanalysis evident during that time. Of course, writing from a contemporary perspective provides the advantages of distance and hindsight, but it also introduces the concern of historical distortion. I'm of necessity being selective, and inevitably subjective. I will not be able to address many of the important issues or cite all of the many authors who during my tenure made seminal contributions to psychoanalysis.

Youthful at the time by psychoanalytic standards, I experienced my appointment as a great honor and privilege, as well as an awesome responsibility. The editorship provided endless intellectual stimulation and challenge, as well as an excess of highly disciplined work. A main task on becoming editor was to maintain a balance between psychoanalytic preservation and psychoanalytic innovation. I was initially concerned with maintaining the autonomy of the journal and of the editorial process against the political and personal pressures, perhaps inevitable, that confront any journal, especially one sponsored by a professional association. I was pleased that during my tenure the editorial process and the journal remained entirely independent.

A first, perhaps superficial change in JAPA was a redesign of the journal. Among the more significant changes was the appointment for the first time of an assistant editor for child and adolescent analysis and child development. In