Editorial

We are very pleased to welcome a recent increase in the numbers of unsolicited articles to the International Journal of Applied Psychoanalytic Studies, as revealed in the line-up for volume 7, issue 4. In reviewing 2010, we perceive an increased interest in community psychoanalysis and the study of social problems, along with a sea change in the idea of psychiatric medicine with the highly controversial review of DSM-V which uses a much more dimensional approach to a descriptive classification of psychiatric illness. The amount of research into brain functioning and neuroplasticity is mind boggling and the studies in genetics are even more revealing and infinitely more complex than the simple genes of Gregor Mendel. One could imagine psychiatric illness to be cured if not managed, by forms of gene splicing and stem cell transplants focused on the central nervous system. Such an event would create enormous ethical problems, as the modern monster emerges with the same doom as for the baby-like monster in Mary Shelley's book, Frankenstein, which possibly was based on a fantasy of the future. In the midst of all of this, serious psychiatric problems, school violence, and bullying have emerged fueled by the rapid pace of cyber-bullying through Facebook, Twitter, instant messaging, and other aspects of the Internet. These technologies have allowed the contraction of time and space and the ease through texting of instantly conveyed mental states from one person to another. Where has privacy gone? Has privacy and personal space any current meaning? Is privacy entirely defensive? It is certainly an exciting world of untrammeled knowledge that is developing at a pace that even Thomas Kuhn would have found impressive. We are pleased to be alive at this time.

This year the editorial board welcomes Yasser Ad-Dab'bagh, who is, to our knowledge, the only Saudi Arabian psychoanalyst in the world. We have also said a mournful goodbye to Stuart Hauser, described by Peter Fonagy as one