Educational Section

Professional and scientific journals in general, and psychoanalytic journals in particular, serve several functions. They facilitate communication about new observations, such as interesting case histories or clinical experiences, new ideas, such as technical innovations or experimental curricula, and new theories—new ways of thinking both about and within the discipline. They also provide a forum for the review and analysis of the current state of thinking in the field. Papers in this second category focus on what is already known rather than what is new, but in doing so they can offer important new perspectives and point to new questions and problems. They discuss some concept or issue in the field, tracing its history, outlining its current status, discussing disparate views or perspectives, pointing out contradictions, paradoxes, problems and unanswered questions, and suggesting revisions or strategies for further scholarly work. They are particularly important in maintaining communication among various groups in the profession: groups defined by history, culture, language, ideological commitment, or sub-specialty interest.

The Journal is embarking on a new series of papers in this latter category. They will discuss selected essential concepts in psychoanalysis. The series will be edited by Cláudio Eizirik, of Porto Alegre, Brazil; Alain Gibeault, of Paris, France; Richard Rusbridger, of London, England, and myself. We have begun to discuss how it should be organised, which concepts will be addressed, which authors to invite, and how submissions should be reviewed. We hope to make it as interesting, useful and user-friendly as possible.

Of course this is not the first time that such an endeavour has been attempted. Laplanche & Pontalis’ The Language of Psycho-Analysis (published in French in 1967 and in English in 1973) traced the history of this type of effort to Richard Sterba's Handwörterbuch der Psychoanalyse, published in 1936-37. Daniel Lagache, in his intro