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Next to a total lack of contributors and of subscribers nothing is more dreaded by an Editor than that the organization he serves should establish a precedent that Addresses from the Chair and such-like speeches for An Occasion should be published in his Journal. Knowing this both as an Editor and as an ex-President of one of the Branch Societies of the International Psycho-Analytical Association (the British one) I have tried to avoid embarrassment to the Editor and I hope to readers by removing from the Addresses from the Chair given in July, 1948, 1949 and 1950 all references to current events which do not have a general bearing, and am placing before the readers of this Journal some Reflections which, though based on the experience of only one Society, may perhaps have a little significance for all.
It is proper at this point to say that to remedy such defects as are apparent to me in the three original Reports I have revised them and in places added to them considerably. Naturally I offer them with hesitation because they are discursive and do not derive exclusively from that area of research which it is the profession of psycho-analysts to explore.
Readers are kindly asked to imagine themselves to be members of the British Psycho-Analytical Scciety in the reconstruction phase following a world war—a Society which has grown in numbers to about one hundred with about fifty students; also to realize that among the students in one year there were more Lieutenant-Colonels than any other category, i.e. that students and members had been busily and responsibly employed during the years of war struggle in many and diverse psychological duties; also to recall that the Society is about thirty years old, its Institute (the organization which manages its Trust Funds, arranges for the housing of the Society, the Clinic and the Library and the Training) is twenty-five years old and is undergoing a reorganization in order to enable it to function more efficie