The IJCD, International Journal of Controversial Discussions, is a new online journal launching in March 2020 and will be distributed free by subscription. Our intention is to create a forum for discussion and debate about controversial issues within psychoanalysis among colleagues with a variety of different approaches. It will offer a meeting place for analysts with diverging theoretical and clinical attitudes whose paths might otherwise not cross.
The theme of the first issue, which is edited by Daniel Benveniste, is the old question “Is Psychoanalysis a Science or an Art?” It includes eleven original contributions accompanied by discussions and some authors' replies to the discussions. The IJCD is a journal of dialogue and we envision that the discussions begun in this issue will be continued in subsequent issues. We feel that this journal fills a need which is not addressed by many of the contemporary journals in the United States and abroad that tend to publish standalone papers with discussions and responses as the exception rather than the rule.
The IJCD is an independent journal not affiliated with any national or international organization. The editorial board of distinguished scholars and clinicians includes former editors of other psychoanalytic journals. This journal is not peer-reviewed in the usual sense. The standard peer review practice is to send each submitted paper to a panel of readers whose names are not shared with the author of the paper. These readers write reviews which may be excerpted for the author and which form the basis for the acceptance or rejection the paper. In the IJCD model of peer review, well written and well-reasoned papers on a selected controversial topic are published. Each published paper is paired with a response by a discussant with a relevant interest. The author is also given the opportunity to respond in the same issue.
The IJCD does not have any theoretical or ideological bias and will cast a wide net, including contributors from many disciplines and many geographical locations. It will consider a broad array of subjects of interest to mental health professionals. The journal is a work in progress and we welcome input from the larger mental health community.
–Arnold D. Richards, Editor-In-Chief