Editorial

IN THIS ISSUE …

There is a market for brief dynamic therapy and many are engaged in its practice without there being a reliable, systematic model upon which to draw. Ilana Laor contributes to the conceptualization of a brief therapy model and offers a case study.

Freud's death instinct, which he linked with the compulsion to repeat, has been treated with scepticism and rejection in many quarters, yet many analysts find the notion clinically useful beyond simply the metaphorical. This Journal invited David M. Black to reflect upon and to review the concept, and he argues that the death drive was a detour in psychoanalytic thinking, theoretically inconsistent with drive theory, and of historical interest only. Joseph Schwartz responds with agreement, putting forward other ways of thinking about human destructiveness and violence. We will invite further response to this debate in future issues.

Earl Hopper writes a systematic study of hope within the context of contemporary object relations theory and of life's vicissitudes, ultimately defining hope as imagination in the face of trauma.

The theme of hope and hopelessness is further explored by Diana Menzies in her work with an analytic group. She proposes that hope can grow if there is a sharing of true self experiences.

At the BJP/Freud Museum joint conference on The Legacy of Charles Rycroft, the life and work of this exceptional psychoanalyst and psychotherapist were celebrated. Rycroft was for many years the writer who conveyed psychoanalytic ideas to the general public, writing for The Observer, TLS, The NY Review of Books, etc.; thus he was for many years one of the most widely known people in the field. We present the conference papers herein.

Jenny Rycroft speaks of memories of their time together. Margaret Arden and Jeremy Holmes, who were analysands, examine the development of his ideas and their experiences of his technique. Paul Roazen writes of the significance of one of Rycroft's key concepts, ‘ablation of the