Psychoanalytic Social Work: A “Coming of Age”

Since we began publication with our first issue in 1993, this quarterly has devoted its pages to the scholarly examination of the complex and evolving relationship between psychoanalysis and clinical social work. We have published the work of ego psychologists and Winnicottians, intersubjectivists and Lacanians, classical Freudians and contemporary Kleinians. We have considered issues ranging from the highly abstract to the pragmatic, exploring such diverse topics as the psychology of serial killers, referentiation operations in psychotherapy of the borderline personality, and techniques for working with children of divorce. We have presented research on qualitative dimensions of the psychoanalytic process, on the development of professional identity in the social worker-psychoanalyst, and on the attainment of mature object relations in lesbians. Because we are a social work journal, our contributors may be more inclined to use clinical illustrations derived from experience with a more diverse clientele and perhaps a broader spectrum of practice venues; in consequence, groups that are typically underrepresented in other psychoanalytic publications (vulnerable and oppressed populations, the economically