Editorial Introduction

The most recent scientific conference of the National Association for the Advancement of Psychoanalysis was held in April of 1984. These annual events, though they vary slightly in format, have come to take a consistent general shape: Representatives of several schools of thought present talks that in some way represent the speakers' respective approaches to a particular problem or question of psychoanalytic practice. These talks have been, and were in the 1984 session, variable in their formality but scarcely at all in their penetration and in their value. Participants—and all who attend can be considered participants, since questioning from the floor is welcomed and is generally lively—often come away feeling significantly enriched by the cross-pollination that results. Similarities are discovered lurking beneath terminological variants; differences often seem surprisingly bridgeable, or tolerable. These conferences are, in short, an ongoing triumph of NAAP; if they were its only product they would constitute ample justification for its existence. This journal, then, considers it an honor to publish these papers along with the discussions they engender.

The subject for this year's conference was the uses of interpretation. It was addressed by Arthur Robbins, John Beebe, Harold H. Mosak, and Herbert Holt. Discussions are sometimes built into the program, with formal discussants assigned, and sometimes not. In this session one respondent commented on all four presentations—and, as usual, many more volunteered responses from the floor. The respondent on the platform was Phyllis W. Meadow, Dean of the Center for Modern Psychoanalytic Studies. Participants were welcomed byBeverley D. Zabriskie, President