Response to the Contributors to “Essays Inspired by Theodore Jacobs's The Use of the Self”

I am honored to have had The Use of the Self chosen as the subject of this issue of Psychoanalytic Inquiry and grateful to the contributors who so generously took time from their busy schedules to write essays for this volume. I owe a debt of thanks, too, to Dr. Melvin Bornstein, who organized the issue and did so splendid a job editing it.

It is a rare privilege for an author to be able to review a collection of articles by distinguished colleagues that have been written in response to his work. One feels especially privileged when, as is true of the articles in this issue, each of them makes a significant contribution in its own right. Having had the opportunity to view my book through the lenses provided by my colleagues has been an invaluable experience for me. Not only have I gained a fresh perspective on my work and been stimulated to review my thinking in a number of areas, I have also learned a great deal from my colleagues. Utilizing some of the ideas concerning countertransference, the analyst's subjectivity, and the interactive aspect of the analytic process that I and others have written about, several of these colleagues have extended these ideas, pursued their theoretical implications beyond the point that I had carried them, and broken new ground.