Clinical Commentary 47

When I first saw the clinical material for this commentary which amongst other things includes a clinician looking back over a period of time at work that took place at an earlier point in their career, it seemed fitting as this will be my last contribution as Clinical Commentaries Editor before I hand it on to my successor. I thought about how one of the great challenges in editing this section of the journal has been sourcing original clinical material, and, as any psychoanalytic author writing about a clinical experience is faced with, the multi-layered task of disguising the material. At the heart of this endeavour is choosing a name to take the place of the actual name of the patient. ‘What is in a name?’—this is far more complex than it might seem; names bring up so many associations as each of the writers below express in equally unique ways. For me, it evoked the Tennyson poem in which there are some parallels, including the theme of suicide and the elusive Maud whom the poem's narrator describes as ‘dead perfection’. All three commentaries, although drawing out different aspects of the patient—life, death, aggression, the ephemeral quality of a silent movie star and the sort of creativity that can only emanate from extreme conditions (a concentration camp) all evoke the sense of distance this patient creates and how hard it is for the patient to maintain contact with the analyst and with her own libidinal self. I would therefore like to thank the anonymous clinician whose clinical work has inspired these responses and as much as we may struggle to see the patient, we are also generously offered a glimpse of the clinician's experience which is so relevant here. In addition to this I would like to thank the authors of the three commentaries, both the current and former Editors, Gary Winship and Ann Scott, and my colleagues on the Board whose support and advice have been invaluable to me over the past few years.

Katya Orrell

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