Editorial

It is a great pleasure to write the introduction to this issue of Psychoanalytic Psychotherapy, my first since taking over as Editor from Jane Milton. This Journal occupies a unique place in our professional concerns, focusing as it does, not simply on the theory, process, and technique of psychoanalytic psychotherapy, but on all of that, when psychotherapy is provided within the publicly-funded setting.

Psychoanalysis has always acknowledged the crucial importance of the setting, understanding it to be a fundamental aspect of the treatment itself. It seems vital, therefore, to have a forum for the development of our understanding of treatments derived from psychoanalysis, but within these very special conditions.

These are challenging times for the Journal: we face competition with a number of training organisations now producing journals of their own. Michael Sinason, the Journal's first editor, has been busy developing the APP website, on which the Journal will be well represented. However, nothing is as effective as personal recommendation, and we are reliant on our readers to help promote what we do.

Psychoanalytic psychotherapy within the NHS is constantly threatened; the Journal provides a forum not for just writing about what we do, but also for sharing our experience of trying to protect it. At the same time, there has been an increase in the numbers of organisations within the voluntary sector, offering treatment based more or less unambiguously on psychoanalysis. More training organisations are seeking BCP accreditation, and some of their members find work in the public sphere. It is extremely important these settings and individuals feel supported and represented by the Journal and by the APP. I should like to ask Journal readers to ensure that colleagues in the voluntary sector and in the wider health and social services know about us. Some back and current issues of the Journal are available, if you know of colleagues or organisations we might tempt to su