You do not currently have permission to view the full text for this document. Please sign in to an account with an active subscription or contact support.
Dear Editor
The purchase of the BJP secures a valuable asset for the BAP and Black-well Publishing (the latter now taken over by John Wiley & Sons). I would like to consider what it is that has actually been acquired and how it should be treated.
Whilst legally and financially the BAP is now a co-owner with the publishing company, I believe the BAP, in particular, has also inherited something very precious, which is the symbolic ownership of the Journal by a self-selected group of organisations representing our profession.
It was Bob Hinshelwood's innovative, creative, courageous commitment that gave British psychoanalytic psychotherapy a journal that was open to papers from anyone working within the psychoanalytic tradition, so long as they met editorial standards. The Journal survived the UKCP/BCP split, maintaining its editorial policy, and for 22 years it has acted as both a bridge and a container for our differences and divides.
Behind this achievement lay an interesting organisational structure. At its inception Bob Hinshelwood invited the relevant associations to be Sponsoring Organisations. Those that decided to join the venture entered into an unwritten contract between themselves and the Journal: in exchange for the support of a block subscription for the entire membership of each organisation, an editorial seat was secured. This ensured that any organisation that wanted to be involved had a voice and was linked directly into the creative endeavour. I think this structure gave the six organisations a sense of ownership and responsibility towards this unique over-arching professional container.
How will that legacy be treated? The Sponsoring Organisations are now to be called Founding Organisations reflecting the change in their relationship to the Journal as they are released from the requirement to have a block subscription. With the dissolution of this arrangement, the unwritten contract that has been effective for the past 22 years ceases. Whilst the FOs are