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In common with many academic journals, the IJPA is now ‘on-line’ at the IJPA Home Page, located on the Internet at the address http//:www.ijpa.org. The Home Page, created and edited by Joseph Sandler, contains information about journal subscriptions, submissions, staff, contents, forthcoming events, book reviews, links with other psychoanalytic Internet sites and a ‘live’ discussion group, the launch of which is considered in this review. The Internet is accessible to millions of people for the cost of a local telephone call, offering unprecedented access to information, often (though by no means always) of high quality. This fact has led one psychiatry journal editor to comment recently that within ten years the norm will be for journals to be published electronically, with printed versions available upon request. Many people who would not otherwise come into contact with the IJPA can now download information and psychoanalytic papers, and engage directly with psychoanalysts. Making contact with a wide audience is one method by which the contemporary identity of the psychoanalyst can be supported. That this is necessary may be seen, for example, from the ways in which therapies deriving from psychoanalytic concepts have proliferated and have become confused with psychoanalysis, in the public imagination. For the distinctive nature of psychoanalysis to be maintained, and for psychoanalysts to avoid being seen increasingly as ‘trainers of the trainers of trainers’, thoughtful engagement with a wider world is a requirement, not an option.
The IJPA discussion group, which is open to anyone who wishes to subscribe (to join, e-mail the Web Site Editor with your name and e-mail address), makes a pre-published paper (taken from the next issue of the journal) available for downloading free of charge. Comments on the paper are invited, restricted to 300 words per subscriber. These are edited and two, three or more contributions are sent as a bulletin by e-mail to subscribers