Editorial

The International Federation of Psychoanalytic Societies (IFPS) held its 9th Forum of Psychoanalysis in the middle of May in Florence. Its main theme “Psychoanalysis on the threshold of the 21st century” was developed in many variations, spanning from new findings and interpretations of the earliest phases of the history of psychoanalysis to outlooks into impending developments. Many of the articles and panels presented at the Forum will be published in this journal.

Although some of the papers published in this issue were submitted before the Florence Forum, they all spell out much of the field of tension which was the creative core of the Florence Forum. Also they attest to the creative power and the high standard of scholarship unfolded by our colleagues from Italy, who are responsible for the main body of contributions in this issue. Expressed in the simplified form of opposites it can be defined by: intrapsychic forces vs interpersonal dynamisms, trauma theory vs phantasy constructions, Freud vs Ferenczi.

Marco Conci gives a well-documented overview of psychoanalysis in Italy. A warning may be at its place: Do not think that the regional delimitation implies a content of limited interest. On the contrary, Conci's paper contains points of view and questions which may shake any reader fully awake.

Paolo Migone succeeds in sketching the role of “real” trauma in contemporary psychoanalysis in a few pages, and discusses what a possible return to Freud's original seduction theory might mean to the future development of psychoanalysis.

A specific instance of a trend in psychoanalysis, where, among other things, “real life experience” is prominent, is given by Marco Bacciagaluppi in his paper on “The influence of Ferenczi on Bowlby”. This paper was part of a panel on Ferenczi in Florence. Bacciagaluppi mentions in passing Bowlby's description and discussion of episodic and semantic storage of information. This conceptualization relates to the increasing need for psychoanal