A Note from the Creative Literary Editor

The outpouring in response to our call for poetry by people in analysis has been overwhelming. We received more than a hundred poems—some from as far away as South Africa, others from California, Pennsylvania, and Tennessee. Many more were worthy of publication than space allows in this issue.

In the following pages, the reader is asked to suspend the expectation of scholarly tone and method usually found in psychoanalytic journals. For what we have here is not scholarly or polite. Some poems may shock you or strike you as raunchy or obscene, but as analysts we choose to delve into the deepest and darkest of human feelings.

The poems in this issue run the gamut—passionate, insightful, heartfelt, powerful, funny, whimsical, even outrageous. Evocative language. Original voices. For some authors, the writing added new levels of understanding to their therapeutic encounter and to their own growth. One poet felt that writing was an integral part of therapy. Another asked to use a nom de plume. Another said she wrote to curb uneasy feelings. One poem is from a nine-year-old girl. A few people wrote about their analysts. A few analysts submitted poetry, too.

No doubt, writing illuminates, contains, and heals while creating something new. Some of the poems are very personal and self-disclosing, some are clearly the burst of a creative spark, while others grapple with understanding difficult and complicated feelings about parents and loss and letting go, about growing up and growing old.

The poems were read anonymously. I want to thank the reviewers, Liza Bennett, a former chairperson and current director of the Academy of American Poets, and her husband, William Bennett, who has had long experience in publishing, and Rochelle Shapiro, a published poet, critic (Iowa Review, Chicago Review), and novelist (Miriam the Medium). Thanks also to Anja Behm for coordinating the project and ensuring anonymity.