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To the Editor:
I HAVE ALWAYS been impressed by the originality, creativity and scholorship of papers published in Contemporary Psychoanalysis. It was with increasing dismay that I read the paper "The Opposing Currents Technique" by Steven Stern in the October, 1992 issue.
Although the author mentions a footnote that the ideas were presented in a chapter, he does not cite the book. I found that the paper in Contemporary was essentially expanded and slightly reworked version of the earlier chapter, "Managing opposing currents: An intrerpersonal psychoanalystic technique for the treating of eating disorders" in Psychodynamic Treatment of Anorexia Nervosa and Bulimia edited by Craig Johnson, Ph.D. and published in 1990.
The presentation of the idea of "opposing currents", the account of Case L., the discussion, conclusion and references are almost identical to the chapter. The introduction and discussion of self-problems, some object-relations points of view and transferencce in the Contemporary paper are new. While the idea of "opposing currents" and the overarching intepersonal point of view is a welcome contribution to the literature of eating disorders, the paper in the Contemporary is not a "new" paper.