Editorial

This is an untypical issue of the Journal. It was not deliberately planned, but it presented itself as an interesting experiment.

The speakers at the monthly meetings of the Analytical Group of the Society of Analytical Psychology in London produced papers which were coherently concentrating on the theme of borderline patients and their treatment in relation to the concept of self - the primal self and the process of deintegration as developed by Fordham, the ‘big Self’, studied and elaborated by Jung, and the ‘little self’ that is related to the ego's image and idea of itself which the psychoanalysts discuss and describe as consisting of self-representations.

This series of papers is introduced by ‘Notes for the formation of a model’ by Michael Fordham, for it has inspired and guided the thoughts, research, and practice of the authors. The symposium - as it may be called - ends with a masterly summary by Alan Edwards.

A collection of these papers could help to present and define the particular development, style, and contribution that marks the analytical psychologists of the SAP in London. Furthermore, the editorial collaboration that has been established and consolidated by now between the UK and the USA analysts seems to me to have borne fruit in a really most valuable way, as is shown in John Beebe's generous and illuminating response to these papers by the London group. He has helped to clarify their ideas further. I personally was particularly fascinated by his suggested connection between ambivalence towards the Self and the experience of envy.

I hope that, if other groups of analytical psychologists discover that they too have arrived at a particular body of clinical experience, thoughts, concepts, or practice, they might like to share and communicate this to their colleagues, and that they will use this Journal as a vehicle to present their results to our readers. By now the Journal reaches many analysts in many countries all over the world. The communication