Editorial

The founding of the International Review of Psycho-Analysis represents a crystallization of a need which has been felt for some time for an internationally orientated psychoanalytic periodical which would have a somewhat larger scope than the main psychoanalytic journals, but which would be firmly within the mainstream of present-day psychoanalysis. Its appearance is partly a result of the fact that for some time past the International Journal of Psycho-Analysis could not accept many articles, which were essentially psychoanalytic, because priority had to be given to papers which dealt with 'pure' psychoanalysis.

The International Review has been created as a sister Journal to the International Journal which, when it was first published in 1920, had as one of its functions 'the defence of the pure science of psycho-analysis against various forms of direct or indirect opposition'. Psychoanalysis does not now need defending in the same way as then, nor does its 'purity' have to be guarded so vigorously. It represents a fairly well-defined body of thought and a special technique of treatment, but it also consists of a special method of approach. As a science it interacts with other disciplines in its development, and this interaction, rather than diluting it, enriches it. Moreover, the psychoanalytic point of view has been applied, and will increasingly be applied, to problems in a whole variety of different fields. But the new Review will not only cater for articles on 'applied' psychoanalysis. It will equally provide a place for 'teaching' articles, suitable for students of psychoanalysis and for those in other disciplines who are concerned with the application of psychoanalytic thought. It will provide space for articles which are normally considered to be too long for publication (such as the Biography of Karl Abraham in the present issue). It will provide an outlet for papers in special fields, such as that of child psychoanalysis, and will include symposi