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On this occasion of the last issue of the Journal's nineteenth year and the end of my twelve year tenure as editor, I would like to reminisce on the origin and development of our Journal, its relationship to the American Academy of Psychoanalysis and the trials, tribulations and rewards of editing a psychoanalytic journal.
The Journal's origin did not correspond with the founding of the Academy; for the first few years the Academy had no representative publication. Then in 1958, Jules Masserman began editing Science and Psychoanalysis, which consisted of the scientific transactions of Academy meetings. His tireless devotion and consistent expertise resulted in the production of these hard-cover books (published by Grune & Stratton) until 1972 when the twenty-first volume appeared.
There were several disadvantages to this form of publication. Although these volumes had specific topics with titles such as Psychoanalysis and Human Values, Psychoanalysis and Social Process, Psychoanalytic Education, The Ego, Dream Dynamics, etc, the contents of the scientific programs were becoming too diversified to be limited to one encompassing title. It was also felt that a hardcover book had the limitation of papers being buried without bibliographic reference in the Index Medicus and that there would be less distribution and accessibility than there would be for a soft-cover journal. We were also departing from the concept of publishing only meeting proceedings and wanted to represent the widest possible range of authors and audience.
In September, 1971 the Academy contracted with Wiley & Sons to publish a new quarterly entitled The Journal of the American Academy of Psychoanalysis. I can still vividly recall the first meeting at which Silvano Arieti agreed to become the editor. We were excited at having this position filled by someone so exceptional a scholar, writer and clinician with worldwide renown. He asked me to be the assistant editor and we later added Jules Bemporad and Vic