Editorial

We begin this edition of the Journal with reports on two research projects, the one from Russia and the other from the United States. The first article by Yuri Alexandrov and his research team in Moscow entitled, ‘Development through regression’, is the second part of the article presented in the April edition of the Journal. Drawing from his research presented in the first part and referencing authors from analytical psychology, psychoanalysis and the neurosciences, the authors reveal how their work provides solid support for Jung's understanding of regression within the safe container of an analytic relationship as essential for psychological growth and development and as an integral part of the individuation process. Readers will be impressed with the clarity with which the authors manage to present their research and to link threads from different perspectives to substantiate the intimate link between regression and development.

In the second research project, entitled, ‘Changes in verbalizations during sandplay: an empirical study’, the authors, Audrey Punnett and Merle Canfield, report on an innovative research project to quantify verbalizations during sessions of sandplay therapy. This rather complicated task is achieved by using an innovative computerized system to analyze the written verbalizations during sessions of sandplay therapy of an 11-year-old boy diagnosed with major depression. The study showed a decrease in negative and an increase in positive verbalizations over time in the course of the therapy. In the discussion of the significance of these findings, the authors include reflections on the importance of the relationship and of the transference in achieving positive results.

Following the publication of part one in the April edition of the Journal, the next article presents part two of Giovanni Sorge's paper entitled, ‘The theory of the “mana personality” in Jung's works: a historic-hermeneutic perspective’. Here, the author continues his explorat