Introduction

This special issue of the CJP/RCP had its origins in my response to Monique Meloche's writing, “I sincerely hope that the complete transcripts of the interviews can be published in book form … to keep Clifford Scott's contribution alive and well, and be the source of many more papers to come.” She wrote this in her “Notes and Comments about a Videotape Done for the 90th Anniversary of W.C.M. Scott” (1993, p. 160); the videotape was her 1 hour of selections from the 12 hours of interviews conducted from 1989 to 1992. Thus inspired, I began the transcription, which, when completed, came in at just under 50,000 words. Our editors, Charles Levin and Josette Garon, invited me to be guest editor of an issue about Clifford Scott that would include a shorter version of this transcription. In their foreword to Scott's memoir, Becoming a Psychoanalyst, Scott's sons, Richard and Robert Scott, mentioned that all his papers had been donated to the (then) National Archives of Canada (Scott, 2001). They added that this material would be “available to serious researchers,” including the balance of his autobiography. This was also a great encouragement to me. Accordingly, I asked for general permission from Scott's estate to access the archive. I am deeply grateful to his sons for their support and for their permission to publish their father's writings.

The shortened version of the interviews begins the issue, with key topics highlighted for each. This is followed by Patrick Mahony's comprehensive “An Introduction to Clifford Scott: His Theory, Technique, Manner of Thinking, and Self-Expression,” reprinted with his permission. It includes an excellent list of most of Scott's published papers (interested readers can use “W.M. Scott” to find many of these in Psychoanalytic Electronic Publishing, PEP).