Editors' Introduction

In 1912 Sigmund Freud doomed the enterprise of family therapy to decades of disrespect with the concluding paragraph of his first paper on psychoanalytic technique: “Let me express a hope that the increasing experience of psychoanalysts will soon lead to an agreement on questions of technique and on the most effective method of treating neurotic patients. As regards the treatment of their relatives I must confess myself utterly at a loss, and I have in general little faith in any individual treatment of them” (1912, p. 120).

It has turned out, of course, that Freud was wrong on both points. There has been no general agreement on psychoanalytic technique—in fact, disagreements proliferate as we write. The treatment of relatives is not so hopeless, as the efforts over the years of undaunted family therapists have by now amply demonstrated.

Yet there remains a gap between the fields, as Sander and Winer point out in their paper. We hope in this and future issues to narrow the gap by presenting material that shows how fruitful the closer integration of the two therapies might be. We are grateful to Dr. Sander for organizing the valuable papers and discussions presented in this issue.

Family Therapy, or as it is sometimes called, marital therapy, is in our opinion one of the three most important clinical branches of applied psychoanalysis, the other two being the psychoanalysis of children, and all the forms of psychoanalytically derived psychotherapy. These therapies share with psychoanalysis its clinical basis; i.e., they involve real people whose behavior can substantiate or negate clinical formulations. As such they merit the careful study of psychoanalytic clinicians, and comprise suitable topics for this Journal.

The latter part of this issue features two papers by Margery Adelson that demonstrate the application of psychoanalysis to the understanding and treatment of older persons, papers that combine the fields of family and individual therapy.