I am hitting a wall as I ponder how to draw all these various explorations of the concept of otherness into a common theme. They are each so very distinct. Perhaps that points the way to a unifying (if not a common) theme – a theme of connection through difference. Riker’s thirdness as a solution to the trauma of facing the other; Orange’s experiential ethics and obligation to the other, drawing from Levinas and Løgstrup; Rozmarin’s notion of the other as present-absence in the mind and in the world; Stolorow’s emotional dwelling; Chalker’s claiming of her name; my insistence on an identity that means staying the same through time rather than being the same as another; Togashi’s lovely “I could be you.” Each of these ideas tells us as much about the author as it does about the topic. In confronting the concept of the other, it seems we have each gotten to know one another a little better.

Daniel Goldin, MFT, Psy.D.

Issue Editor