Editor's Introduction

The articles in this issue of Neuropsychoanalysis reflect the generativity arising out of the neuropsychoanalytic dialogue. Three of the articles explore the dysfunction of the PANIC/separation-distress system as a substrate of mood disorders and addiction, a topic that has received considerable attention in the neuropsychoanalytic community. Two other articles explore dreams—another topic of long-standing interest—from intriguing angles.

In the Original Articles section, two studies investigate aspects of the separation-distress hypothesis of depression first proposed in these pages by Watt and Panksepp in 2009. First, Michelle Jackson and Mark Solms report that PANIC/separation distress is associated with both high obsessionality and low mood, as well as with a history of OCD and depression. This confirmation of one of the predictions of the separation-distress hypothesis of depression suggests a basis for the frequent comorbidity of OCD and depression. Second, Susan Malcolm-Smith and colleagues report that nonpsychiatric subjects with a history of social trauma scored lower on SEEKING measures and had altered responses to opioid challenges, indicating a dysfunctional opioid system. A third article, by Brian Johnson and Stephen Faraone, describes a case series of a successful detoxification treatment for opioid-dependent patients using a combination of opioid antagonists and relationally focused psychoanalytic psychotherapy. In the first of the articles on dreams, Claudio Colace investigates children's dreams (on which he has previously published in our journal), finding that the majority of children's dreams are linked to the fulfillment of wishes generated by recent daytime events.

In the second article on dreams, appearing in our Clinical Reports section, Bianca Gallo and colleagues discuss the case of a dream that a man had on the night after having a stroke. This dream seemed to represent some of the emotional issues that may have added to this man's vulnerabil