Editor's Introduction

“The Professional Identity of the Social Work-Psychoanalyst: Theoretical Orientations,” is the third paper in a series examining various aspects of professional identity formation in the social work-psychoanalyst. In previous papers, Perlman's focus was on the origins of professional identity in the social work-psychoanalyst, and professional activities of the social work-psychoanalyst. In each instance, two central questions were posed: Do social work-psychoanalysts demonstrate the attributes of membership in the social work profession, and Are social work-psychoanalysts distinguishable from their fellow psychoanalysts in psychology? In this paper, Perlman focuses his attention on the degree to which social workers trained as psychoanalysts can be distinguished from psychologists trained as psychoanalysts with respect to preferred theoretical orientations. In the main, Perlman finds little observable difference between these two groups, and concludes that professionally trained social workers do not appear to approach the practice of psychoanalysis with an orientation to practice that is distinctively and clearly related to social work precepts or principles of practice.

“The Most Human of All People” is described by its author as a “meditation upon a puzzling incident of unconscious communication involving a remark of Harry Stack Sullivan's.” Examining