From the Editors

Book reviews engage the work of interpretation and translation. Every review we publish presents an interpretation of an author's work—an attempt to invite readers into conversation with the author and the reviewer about ideas seen through the reviewer's translational lens. In this issue of JAPA devoted to interpretation, we are pleased to inaugurate a unique series of reviews, each corresponding to an entry in the recently launched International Regional Encyclopedic Dictionary (IRED), edited by the IPA and chaired by Eva Papiasvili. In this time of global strife, the IRED project, an online, interregional encyclopedic dictionary of psychoanalysis, speaks to the power of translation and interpretation across a range of perspectives and diversities. IRED is not a dictionary of concepts; rather, it is a dictionary of interpretations of concepts in different regions, languages, and cultures at different times. “The history of our profession starts in a center (Vienna, London, Paris). When it moves toward the periphery, new phenomena occur, and more so when it crosses the oceans. There the fortunate expansion of psychoanalysis intertwines with a variety of factors” (IRED, “Intersubjectivity,” p. 241). One of the key principles of this evolving dictionary is that concepts are not fixed; their meanings migrate across time, space, and languages. In an intricately woven tapestry of interpretation and translation, IRED's editors strive to capture core psychoanalytic concepts in four-dimensional context.

IRED's multiperspectival approach highlights the transformative activity of language in reflecting differences among interpretations, thus building “translational bridges” . Thanks to the extraordinary collective effort of committed contributors worldwide, IRED embraces plurality without erasing differences. Against our common wish for simplification, IRED embraces a plurality of interpretations, preserving complexity and singularity in our understanding of analytic concepts.