Credo

We believe this to be a promising era of diversity and creative ferment in psychoanalysis. The legacy of Freud and of those who along with him pioneered the psychoanalytic exploration of the mind provides a solid base for the evaluation and integration of current divergent views. A common acceptance of psychic determinism, unconscious motivation, intrapsychic conflict, genetic and experiential influences on maturation and development, and the significance of the child-parent interaction in shaping individuality unites an extensive group of mental health professionals. These mental health professionals follow Freud in one or more of the three interrelated fields that he established: the clinical practice of psychoanalysis and psychoanalytically based psychotherapy, a far-reaching method of research into all areas of human development and productivity, and the formulation of a theory of mental functioning and of human individuality and interrelatedness. This journal, by taking up in each issue a topic chosen from the broad areas of practice, research, and theory, can offer the reader an appreciation of the diversity of views and the problems and potentials for synthesis.

We believe that the mode of observation central to psychoanalysis is that which occurs in the formal clinical setting of analyst and analysand. It is based on the unique experience of the shared perception of transferences being formed, analyzed, and resolved. From this source, especially with its expanding scope, comes a continuous flow of data — much confirmatory of Freud's basic proposals, much new and challenging. In addition, the expanding scope of research into neonate and child development, neurophysiology, and cognitive development, and studies of creativity applied to science and the arts have produced a healthy abundance of augmenting information.

Through the presentation of original contributions on a topic in each issue, we plan to contribute to the transmission and comprehension of t