Editorial

This Journal is primarily a clinical one and this issue presents our readers with first rate case studies well woven with theoretical perspectives. A theme of transgenerational trauma and the influence of ghostly ancestors threads its way through the individual papers forming a network of related complex issues familiar in analytic practice. The creative skill and depth of understanding of our authors provide companionship and inspiration for those of us struggling to help find words and images to create stories and narratives for patients who are oppressed by the unspeakable and the inchoate. It is through companionship and the capacity to combine thought and affect that we help our analysands create an understanding that is habitable and life-giving. Each of these authors demonstrates remarkable talent in their capacity for containment of themselves and their patients in the face of unspeakable loss. Scintillae or sparks of light in the dark emerge through consistent interaction and persistent interest and curiosity on the part of the analyst; although small, these sparks of light or aliveness awaken the possibility of life different from the past, a new way of experiencing oneself and the other. The safety of the analytic container offers a space for experimentation, for life outside traumatic repetition. Movement from deadness to life-force energy is possible and evident in the papers that you will read herein.

The first three papers in this edition were originally given at the Journal's May 2011 conference in St. Petersburg, The Ancestors in Personal, Professional and Social History. Judith Pickering, our colleague from Australia, leads us through an analysis that reads like an unfolding mystery. We begin as Judith and her patient did — unknowing about the past but well aware of its effects on the present. Step-by-step, we come to appreciate the relevance of symptoms as clues to understanding current suffering. Somatic countertransference informs Judith at a vis