Heisterkamp points to the meager attention given to the theme of joy in psychoanalysis, and undertakes an attempt to accord it its rightful place. In the author's view, the feeling of joy is complementary to that of anxiety. Whereas anxiety represents psychic distress in connection with the problem of structuring, joy is the expression of successful (re) structuring, in whatever form, and marks the beginning of a new start. In an empirical study encompassing five German-language psychoanalytic journals published in 1992, as well as various brief (auto) biographies of psychoanalysts, the source material was subjected to an analysis of content with a view to casting light on the degree to which joy phenomena receive any kind of mention in psychoanalytic publications. Heisterkamp's sample reveals that joyful phenomena hardly figure at all in professional articles, whereas (auto) biographical statements made by psychoanalysts themselves are appreciably more emotional in tone.