Letter from London

I start with a disclaimer about the title: in two different ways this is not exactly a letter from London. Firstly, the British Psychoanalytic Society (BPAS) was until recently the only IPA psychoanalytic society in London but now there is a second society, the British Psychoanalytic Association (BPA). Although I will try to tell you something of the new society, this letter is primarily from the BPAS. Secondly, a letter from the BPAS is not only a letter from London; we are actually a British society rather than a London one and I will also tell you something about our efforts to promote and maintain psychoanalysis beyond London.

The British Psychoanalytic Society is of course one with a long tradition. Over the generations since our founding in 1913, we have enjoyed and benefited from the stellar contributions of some of the greatest minds in psychoanalysis. In 2010 London psychoanalysts still feel a sense of privilege at our history and tradition and at what we continue to learn from our gifted senior colleagues. But this sense is tempered by a number of realizations, which could perhaps all be related to the necessity of facing reality, mourning and working through. It is wonderful that we have world-renowned members still making scientific contributions in their 70s and 80s. But for those of us following there are questions: how will we fare without them? will we be able to continue with anything like the level of creativity? In addition, there are the challenges around us, challenges which are being faced by psychoanalytic societies world-wide and have been well described elsewhere. In London we share in the concern about the future of our discipline. Yet there is also a sense that being challenged may not be entirely bad: we are forced to look outwards, to be less complacent, to engage with criticisms some of which may be valid, to get ideas from each other internationally about how to tackle the difficulties.

In this letter I will try to set out a selection of