Introduction

The aims of this new series of publications grew out of the thinking of the editors concerning the conditions necessary for the further growth of psychoanalysis as a science. The editors believe that psychoanalysis needs, first, an atmosphere that encourages innovation. Psychoanalysis and Contemporary Science will therefore be open to any original clinical or theoretical contribution to psychoanalysis. Second, psychoanalysis needs rigorous standards of historical scholarship, for new advances presuppose a thorough knowledge of the development and present status of psychoanalytic method and theory. This Annual will therefore be open to scholarly surveys and historical reviews of important psychoanalytic concepts. Third, psychoanalysis needs the clarity about the nature and meaning of scientific theory and, more generally, about underlying premises and their implications that is given by philosophical analysis. Papers on philosophy of science will be particularly welcome, but other branches of philosophy can help deepen and broaden our understanding as well. Fourth, psychoanalysis needs continual contact with its original source-the intensive naturalistic observation that is possible only in the psychoanalytic treatment situation. The Annual therefore seeks to include clinical contributions that contain new observations and clearly distinguish these observations from theoretical elaborations. Fifth, psychoanalysis needs a thorough understanding of the nature of the psychoanalytic process itself; it needs basic clarity about the nature of clinical inference and the nature of psychoanalytic evidence. Papers that deal with these issues will be most welcome. Sixth, psychoanalysis needs stimulating ideas from other sciences, such as psychology, ethology, genetics, neurophysiology, psychiatry, psychopharmacology, philosophy, linguistics, anthropology, history, sociology, and the information and systems sciences. The editors particularly invite critical surveys reviewing the