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As we put the finishing touches on the 2026 edition of The Psychoanalytic Study of the Child, we are reminded that it has been 100 years since Anna Freud prepared four lectures as an introduction to the technique of child analysis (Freud 1974 [1927/1926]).1 Melanie Klein promptly responded with differing views in a Symposium on Child Analysis presented to the British Psycho-Analytical Society the following year. Over the course of the last century, child psychoanalysis has continued to evolve, and we believe Volume 79 illustrates the progressive shift from the “controversial discussions” of our beginnings to increasing “conversations” among those with differing perspectives. In addition, we think you’ll find in these pages that the hopes of the PSC founding editors for “contacts with neighboring fields” and “contributions from other countries” (Editors’ Preface ) are increasingly realized.
The volume opens with the 2025 Marianne Kris Lecture, “Out of the Woods,” in which Lee Ascherman draws attention to the foundational psychoanalytic theories and concepts that have informed what we know so far about the inner lives of children. His paper includes a challenge to deeply consider and appreciate what distinguishes our discipline from others. It is his view that training in psychoanalysis should begin with a focus on mastering fundamental analytic constructs, with subsequent ideas for extensions, revisions, and/or rejections being introduced in a manner that allows the student to understand their historical context and order of appearance.
Ascherman paves the way for the papers that follow when he notes that “analytic knowledge informs which treatment is indicated, even if it is not analysis” (Ascherman 2026, p. 5). What are the indications for recommending psychoanalysis for a child? Here was one of the areas of disagreement between Mrs. Klein and Miss Freud. While the former believed that analysis would be of benefit to any child due to the universality of primitive anx