Editorial Comments

In the Introduction to this book, it was pointed out that the discussion of scientific controversies had been divided into two series, and had been placed in Sections 2 and 4, as other events taking place in the Society had changed character. However, it should be noted that ‘The Background to the Scientific Controversies’ by Riccardo Steiner (Section 2, Chapter 1) and his comments, cover the papers and discussions in Sections 2 and 4.

There was a gap of three months between the last discussion of the papers included in Section 2 and the commencement of this second series of Scientific Discussions of Controversial Issues. During that period the events included in Section 3 were taking place. In January 1944 Anna Freud resigned from the Training Committee and Edward Glover resigned from the British Psycho-Analytical Society and the Institute of Psycho-Analysis. Glover had delayed his actual resignation until after the meeting of the Training Committee on 24 January 1944, in order to make certain that he was eligible, while still a member of that committee, to make his comments on the draft report of the Training Committee (Section 3, Chapter 10).

The actual discussions included in Section 4 did not start until 16 February 1944, although the paper by Paula Heimann and Susan Isaacs on ‘Regression’ (Heimann and Isaacs 1943) and the three circulated comments on their paper by Edward Glover, Willi Hoffer, and Kate Friedlander (Section 4, Chapter 2) were circulated on 17 December 1944, before these resignations took place. Although Paula Heimann discussed their contributions in her opening statement, they did not attend that Scientific Meeting, nor did Anna Freud or any of her colleagues. By this time only a few Members