Introduction

As Guest Editor of this special section of the Journal, I wish to introduce a number of contributions written by members of OPIFER, an association of independent Italian psychoanalysts.

As a Fellow of nearly 20 years' standing, I have had several opportunities to cooperate with the Academy. I have made several contributions to the Journal and the Forum, and in 1990 I cooperated with Saul Tuttman on the Erich Fromm Anniversary Program for the Academy's 34th Winter Meeting at San Antonio. This, however, is my first opportunity to cooperate on a collective undertaking, and I hope it may be followed by other joint projects between our two organizations.

OPIFER (Organizzazione di Psicoanalisti Italiani—Federazione e Registro) was founded recently, in November 1996. It is made up of various groups and individual analysts who follow different orientations but share scientific and cultural interests and aim to encourage a pluralistic approach. OPIFER welcomes the confrontation among different psychoanalytic positions and rejects any dogmatic approach. In this undertaking, our model is the American Academy—although, coming 40 years later—OPIFER is definitely a very junior relative of the American Academy of Psychoanalysis (AAP).

The initiative of founding OPIFER was taken by four groups, three of which belong to the IFPS (International Federation of Psychoanalytic Societies)—the international association cofounded by Fromm in 1962 as an alternative to the IPA. The names of two of these groups (“Istituto di Psicoterapia Analitica ‘H. S. Sullivan’” and “Istituto ‘Erich Fromm’ di Psicoanalisi Neofreudiana”) clearly show their allegiance to the NeoFreudian tradition. The name of the third (“Società Italiana di Psicoanalisi della Relazione”) shows its link to the more general relational tradition. These groups form a federation to guarantee the characteristics of the association, but applications for membership—following the principles of the American Academy—are accepted on an indi