Editorial

This edition is a special themed issue on siblings. It opens with Sue Sherwin-White's scholarly examination of Freud's interest in siblings. She points out that the commonly held view that Freud was not interested in sibling relationships is a misconception, based on an insufficient understanding of the attempts he made to protect the confidentiality of his patients and a careless reading of his texts. Her impressive paper draws the reader's attention to the many references Freud made to sibling relationships, often about sibling sexual abuse or the impact of a new baby on the sibling, but much more, including what is termed the ‘family complex’. Sherwin-White then goes on to look closely at two of the case histories, ‘Ratman’ and ‘Wolfman’, mixing historical knowledge which has emerged more recently with close examination of the texts to highlight the many references to siblings and elucidate their significance. Sherwin-White's paper provides an excellent opening and reference point for the collection of papers on siblings that follows.

Rustin's stimulating, wide-ranging and thought-provoking paper contrasts the relative neglect of siblings and sibling relationships in much of the wider literature with the fact that this is an area of emotional life has long been a very significant part of child psychotherapy thinking. Rustin discusses some of the possible sociological and cultural factors, as well as developments within the field of psychoanalysis, that might account for the recent renewed interest in sibling relationships reflected in psychoanalytic writing and conferences. She points out that historically in psychoanalytic theory the dominant assumption about sibling relationships has been that of sibling rivalry, with its emphasis on hostility and destructive competition – which Rustin links to the existential fear of displacement – while the positive and loving aspects of sibling relationships tend to have been ignored or given little consideration. Rustin enc