Cognitive Components in Human Conflict and Unconscious Motivation (Arieti, 1977)

Arieti, the first Editor-in-Chief of this journal (1973-1981), who also served as President of the Academy (1979-1980), credited Harry Stack Sullivan, Karen Horney, Erich Fromm, and Erik Erikson as the American creative thinkers and innovators who were instrumental in expanding the psychoanalytic realm of inquiry beyond the parameters of Freudian metapsychological hypotheses. The culturalists, some of whom were either charter members of the American Academy of Psychoanalysis or supported its mission, enriched Freudianism, and paved the way for the acceptance of George Engel's biopsychosocial paradigm, which became pivotal for developing targeted case formulations and patient-centered treatment plans.

Silvano Arieti's contributions to psychiatry are numerous and outstanding. These include the publication of an important two-volume textbook that guided generations of trainees, The American Handbook of Psychiatry, published in 1959 and expanded with a third volume in 1966. Arieti's The Interpretation of Schizophrenia won a National Book Award in 1975. His clinical expertise was far reaching and masterful, particularly when he was caring for persons with schizophrenia and mood disorders. Under his editorship, The Journal of the American Academy of Psychoanalysis developed into a high-quality quarterly peer-reviewed publication. Subsequently, the journal changed its name several times but not its focus to represent the constituents and the evolving mission of the Academy.

The current editors of Psychodynamic Psychiatry chose to feature Arieti's 1977 article “Cognitive Components in Human Conflict and Unconscious Motivation” in this special anniversary issue, to illustrate his creativity and visionary ideas. Without discounting the importance