Editorial

By the time this issue of the Journal is published, my tenure as Editor-in-Chief will have come to an end and I will have handed over the reins to my successors, Susanna Wright and William Meredith-Owen, together with Linda Carter who continues as US Editor-in-Chief.

There are several other editorial changes as well and it is good to know that I will be leaving the Journal in the hands of a strong and capable team. Stefano Carta joins us as European Deputy Editor and Patricia Vesey McGrew has moved from Book Review Editor to become US Deputy Editor. Joe McFadden will follow Patricia as the new Book Review Editor. We say goodbye to Norah Smith, a long-term member of the UK Editorial Board whom I would like to thank for her contribution to the Journal over many years. Ann Casement has also left the Editorial Board but will continue her sterling service as a member of the Editorial Advisory Board.

The five and a half years of my Editorship seem to have passed very quickly. I took on the role with no particular intention other than to maintain the high quality of the Journal I had inherited to the best of my ability. It is interesting to find that I have nevertheless contributed to the character and ethos of the Journal as a natural consequence of the editing process, which is inevitably shaped by one's own character and personal interests. More generally, I see this as an example of the way the self is expressed in action beyond the awareness and control of the ego. One theme that has emerged is the value of continuity and change. I have felt a responsibility to preserve the traditions of the Journal's clinical orientation and the creative synthesis of Jungian and psychoanalytic ideas that resulted in the emergence of the ‘developmental school’ of Jungian analysis, while ensuring that this is kept fresh and alive by being open to change as new perspectives arise. My predecessor, Jean Knox, herself a major contributor to the developmental model, had been keen to open up a