Introduction

The following papers and discussions1 were presented to the family therapy colloquium at the American Psychoanalytic Association's meetings in December of 1996. This ongoing interdisciplinary colloquium on psychoanalytic therapy and family process, chaired by the authors of this introduction, is one of the few places where psychoanalytically oriented family clinicians have an opportunity to meet and discuss their ideas. There is currently no association or journal reflecting work in this area. Psychoanalysis continues to concentrate on individual psychology as it manifests itself in the dyadic psychoanalytic situation, while family therapy, an enterprise begun in rebellion against both psychiatry and psychoanalysis, has recently rejoined mainstream psychiatry via its adoption of a more directive model with a public policy bent.

We are pleased with the timely publication of these papers in The Journal of Clinical Psychoanalysis. It is our belief that the current relatively marginalized status of psychoanalysis is due, in part, to the