From the Editor

I am delighted and humbled to have been chosen as the next editor of JAPA, the historic venue for such writers as Margaret Mahler, Heinz Kohut, and Erik Erikson, among so many other pioneering contributors, and still one of the world’s leading outlets for psychoanalytic scholarship. Since its origins in 1953, the journal has published work that has shaped theory and practice in North America and abroad. We have also expanded considerably. Once considered a bastion of ego psychology, we now publish thought-provoking work from every major school of thought. We are—and we aspire to remain—a place where the best minds in our field gather to present original arguments, to articulate differences, and to engage with questions at the heart of psychoanalysis.

In taking over the role from Mitchell Wilson, who led JAPA for the past 5 years, I am aware not only of how much he and his team achieved, but also of how they set us up to thrive in the years ahead. During his tenure, Mitch was known for his transparent and decisive leadership, his open-mindedness, and his subtlety, both as a writer and as an editor, with a talent for drawing out an author’s voice. Countless writers, including me, can attest to the work he did to bring our papers to life with a texture, a nuance, and often a note of courage not present in the first draft. In addition to his work on spontaneous submissions, Mitch demonstrated the journal’s ability to foreground key conversations through issues on race in psychoanalysis, the enigmatic role of Lacan in American psychoanalysis, and the status of interpretation in contemporary clinical theory. While there are many ways to measure success, perhaps the simplest measure is JAPA’s Impact Factor, which gauges the journal’s relevance on the basis of scholarly citations. For the majority of Mitch’s editorship, JAPA maintained the highest Impact Factor of any psychoanalytic journal.

I would also like to recognize Harold Blum, editor of JAPA from 1973 to 1983 and form