Editorial

There should have been a journal for psychotherapists long before now.

One can only speculate on the reasons why we have not had one. It must be to do with the fragmented state of the profession, with numerous separate trainings based on established theoretical positions; leading to more trainings trying eclectically to bridge the theoretical positions.

All this separateness creates group dynamics within the profession that polarises individuals and organisations into positions increasingly distant from each other. Is there something in the nature of the work, or in the kinds of professional anxieties it throws up, that generates this splitting?

However, the appearance of this Journal is not a miraculous circus act, juggling all the disparate interests into one swaying edifice of acrobats. It comes at a time when there is suddenly a wide recognition of the need to establish some common principles.

Thus this Journal represents the willingness of the majority of psychotherapy training organisations (the Institute of Psychoanalysis, and the Jungian Society have their own journals) to come together. This willingness appears in other activities as well - for instance the “Rugby” Conference.

It is consistent with our split profession that this first issue carries two articles on the contemporary issue of stereotyped gender roles. Joan Raphael-Leff explores the contribution of psycho-analysis to actually creating mythical beliefs about the role of women. She shows how, with these cultural stereotypes, mothers deal with their position through two general modes of internal adjustment. Andrew Samuels in contrast reviews the Jungian contribution to understanding so-called male and female character. Apart from analytical psychologists few writers on these social stereotypes have explored Jung's views.

One of the most powerful influences that play on us as psychotherapists are the dominant assumptions of orthodox psychiatry. These have been generated in the exalted cloisters of the Ma