Preface

Many readers of the BJP will be aware that Bob Hinshelwood has been considering selling the Journal for a while now. In June this year the British Association of Psychotherapists (BAP) and Blackwell Publishing made a joint offer to buy the Journal and, after a meeting with Bob Hinshelwood and with representatives of the Sponsoring Organisations, this offer was accepted and the contracts were signed in August this year.

We are aware that there will be a variety of opinions about this change in ownership given the history of political debate and conflict within our profession over the years. The BAP is an organisation of three sections - Psychoanalytic, Jungian Analytic and Child and Adolescent - and we therefore have considerable experience of containing a variety of theoretical positions and occasional, inevitable conflicts under one roof. The BJP has always had the vital role of providing a forum for the different voices within the profession of psychoanalytic psychotherapy in the UK. These are voices which come from both UKCP and BPC organisations and the BAP and Blackwell Publishing are fully committed to continuing this policy.

The BAP has published its own Journal for more than 40 years and so has never been a Sponsoring Organisation of the BJP. The JBAP is published twice yearly and is read by members of the BAP as part of their subscription, as well as by a small external readership. We have been aware over the last year or so that journal publishing is changing rapidly and that those such as the JBAP and the BJP need to go on-line and be available to reach an international readership if they are to survive. From the point of view of the Council of the BAP, our offer to purchase the BJP was made in the light of the many similarities in the editorial policies of the BJP and the JBAP making it possible to combine the two. What Blackwell Publishing offers in particular is to provide the expertise, software and experience to place the combined journal on the intern