Editorial

For the first issue of this year, we want to let you know of several new things happening, and some of our future plans for the journal and what is going on with special issues and international news. This year we are going to have a special section for candidates' papers. Neil Altman, Ph.D., a member of our Editorial Board, will be managing this section of the journal and communicates the following through us: “The International Journal of Applied Psychoanalytic Studies announces an annual award for best paper by a first time author, a graduate student, intern, resident or psychoanalytic candidate or by a person within five years of graduating from a psychoanalytic institute. The winner of the award shall receive a cash prize and the paper will be published in the journal. Papers that do not receive the prize will be considered for publication in the journal like any other submission. Papers should address the interface of psychoanalysis and other disciplines as described in the purpose of the journal. Clinical papers are acceptable only if they highlight in depth, the sociocultural context of the clinical work described. For further information, please contact .” We hope many of you take advantage of this and if you are a senior psychoanalyst, please encourage your students to particularly bring in a cultural context for what they do and how that influences the process and outcome of psychoanalytic social and community interventions.

At the January, American Psychoanalytic meeting, our committee presented at a very well attended symposium on gun violence in the United States. Presenters included Vamik Volkan, M.D., Peter Fonagy, Ph.D. via Skype, and Stuart W. Twemlow, M.D. along with Chairman Jeffrey Taxman, M.D. This collaboration of experts in the field came up with some interesting suggestions that we hope will become a special issue of the journal in 2015. In addition, Jeffrey Taxman has a publisher already interested in making this a book.