From the Editors

This, the first issue of volume 50, heralds a banner year: a year to reflect on the past of Contemporary Psychoanalysis—which in 2014 celebrates its 50th anniversary—and a year to imagine our future as we begin a new era as part of a larger family, the Taylor & Francis Group, our new publisher. We’ll say more about the latter shortly, but let us start with our anniversary.

Under the co-editorship of Max Deutscher, Ph.D., and Rose Spiegel, M.D., Contemporary Psychoanalysis was launched in the fall of 1964, around the same time the William Alanson White Institute, founded in 1943, moved to new headquarters located at 20 West 74th Street in New York City, where it still resides. It was an exhilarating time. The first issue of Contemporary Psychoanalysis featured articles by Otto Will, Silvano Arieti, and Erich Fromm (a founding member of the Institute). Published twice a year until 1973 when then-editor Arthur Feiner expanded the journal to a quarterly, Contemporary Psychoanalysis might be seen as a historical monument to the progression of psychoanalysis in America, from the mainstream, orthodox “one-person” practices of the European/Freudian tradition of the 1920s and 1930s, to the dominance of ego psychology in the United States in the mid-20th century, to the more interactive “two-person” approaches that have become more prevalent in contemporary practice. Volumes over the 50 years highlight the rich, innovative theoretical and clinical ideas that many of us use in our work with patients.

So, how to celebrate these glorious 50 years? To start, we have asked a number of Contemporary Psychoanalysis's seminal authors to pick an “unsung” gem from our archive that they consider important to their thinking and practice over the years. By “unsung,” we mean seldom cited, perhaps forgotten in the literature, although certainly not forgotten by the colleague who chooses it. From the many to consider, we have selected three—one per issue during this anniversary year—to highligh