Gli Argonauti: Psicoanalisi E Societá. Special Issue: “An International Debate on the Therapeutic Action of Psychoanalysis.” Edited by Davide Lopez. Volume  27, Numbers 102 and 104. April 2005.

This special issue of the Italian journal Gli Argonauti: Psicoanalisi e Societ´, entitled “An International Debate on the Therapeutic Action of Psychoanalysis,” was organized by the journal's founder, psychoanalyst Davide Lopez, who was deeply troubled by Glen Gabbard and Drew Westen's 2003 article, “Rethinking Therapeutic Action.”1 In addition to writing his own response, Lopez invited other analysts to write about therapeutic action with the option of responding to Gabbard and Westen. The articles contained do not comprise a formal discussion; they are, rather, a disparate, thoughtful collection of essays—the authors' personal reflections on aspects of the psychoanalytic setting.

Gabbard and Westen's 2003 article (which is not reprinted in this special issue of Gli Argonauti) addressed a topic that is roiling American psychoanalysis: the loss of consensus regarding the nature of the therapeutic action of psychoanalysis. Their article presented an inclusive description of contemporary North American views of the therapeutic action of psychoanalysis and of our inability to describe or validate these views empirically. They then underscored