Editorial

In June 1996 The Journal of Analytical Psychology sponsored its first American Conference on the Sebasco Estates in Maine. The Conference was titled ‘Jungians at the crossroads: the interface with psychoanalysis’ and explored points of convergence between analytical psychology and contemporary psychoanalysis, including object relations theory and self-psychology. Speakers were chosen to represent a range of theory and practice within both the fields of analytical psychology and psychoanalysis. The clinical emphasis of the Conference was also reflected in the topics covered, which included transference and countertransference, the transcendent function, the nature of internal objects, regression, the self in analysis, and the analyst's participation in the analytic process.

This issue of the Journal is devoted to the papers that were presented at this conference. We wanted to publish these papers together, not only because of their exceptionally high quality but also to offer our readers who were unable to attend the Conference an opportunity to participate. We hope that the dialogues that were started in Maine can be continued, that through this venue they can encompass a wider audience, and that they can also be deepened.

We also publish these papers to underline an historic occasion, one of the few public events to bring together analytical psychologists and psychoanalysts (both as speakers and participants) in the United States in recent years. This proved to be so stimulating and fruitful that the Journal is holding a second American Conference, again on the Sebasco Estates. In June 1997, this Conference, ‘Family matters’, will focus on the history of psychoanalysis and analytical psychology, our overlapping family trees, and how our current family practice is related to our respective histories.

We encourage our readers to respond to these papers and to attend our next Conference.