Editor's Comments

In the last issue I mentioned that the BJP has always placed clinical narrative at its heart, and this issue begins with three such papers in our regular Clinical Practice and Theory strand. Each offers clinical immediacy; each locates its case material within a complex theoretical framework. Firstly, Jonathan Radcliffe and Frank Yeomans introduce and explicate Transference-focused Psychotherapy, adding to the theoretical literature on TFP - a modality underpinned by Kleinian object relations - with an extended case description. Importantly, for our comparative purposes, the TFP therapist ‘does not apply technical neutrality to behaviours considered inimical to the therapy. These are spelled out in a therapeutic contract negotiated before therapy can begin.’ The authors' detailed account - which covers contracting and the research evidence for TFP, among other themes - provides the reader with an opportunity to see TFP in practice, and to consider the question posed and thoughtfully discussed by the authors: ‘Could therapy have worked without behavioural injunctions?’

Next, Satoshi Handa describes work over several years with a hysterical patient, a survivor of severe abuse and neglect. Handa considers his countertransference at different stages of the treatment, in particular his great fear of his patient's death when she was absent without notice. Locating his work in both the classical and contemporary readings of hysteria, he looks at the ways in which he ‘enacted in her hysterical system’ and how he managed to disentangle himself from the enactment. He further argues that it is ‘essential to assess the extent of the hidden madness and fragmentation beneath the ostensible integrity’. His is a candid, thought-provoking discussion.

Thirdly, Mark J. Goldblatt, whose work on suicide has previously been published in the BJP, addresses the increasing use of assistance dogs by patients who suffer from a variety of psychological ailments: ‘as assistance dogs enter the phy