Editorial

Psychoanalysis today has to prove its value in a more serious way than before. Other methods and theories compete successfully to get the interest and economical support from governments, assurance agencies and the general public. Within the universe of medical and social research the demand for evidence based methods have rapidly increased. Psychoanalysts will have to give rigorous descriptions of their theories and methods, how they are related to each other and in what way they help people in their living, in ways that are understandable and open not only to colleagues, but also to authorities and the ordinary human being.

The psychoanalytic journal is the medium of choice for such a process. The journal is a collective work achieved by a large number of members of the profession. Frequently articles published in our journal have gone through a process of having been discussed at seminars or conferences. They are reviewed by experienced colleagues and subsequently revised. They are thoroughly evaluated in the editorial board, and in optimal cases, commentaries and discussions of the paper are published. Finally papers, which are published in journals recognized by indexing agencies, become available for a general scientific discourse. The whole process of producing a journal of this kind is a way of learning and of expanding ways of transmitting the experiences from our consulting rooms to colleagues and to the outer world.

Of equal importance is the long-term availability of papers published in different journals for the professional community. PEP is a new kind of CDROM disk containing searchable full text psychoanalytical articles. The latest version of the PEP disk contains papers from 11 psychoanalytical journals. We are happy to announce that Taylor & Francis have signed an agreement with Psychoanalytic Electronic Publishing Inc. to include International Forum of Psychoanalysis in the next version of the PEP disk to be launched in 2005. This is an important m