A new and expanded edition of the Glossary of Psychoanalytic Terms and Concepts is now in preparation. The editors of the original volume, Drs. Burness E. Moore and Bernard D. Fine, will continue to head the project, but will be assisted by an editorial board consisting of Drs. Alvin Frank, Jules Glenn, Mark Kanzer, Otto F. Kernberg, Selma Kramer, Vann Spruiell, Ernst Ticho, Edward M. Weinshel, and George H. Wiedeman, with Drs. Jacob A. Arlow, Harold P. Blum, Dale Boesky, and George H. Klumpner as consultants.
The plan is to update and revise the Glossary, not only clarifying and enlarging some of the definitions, and improving their overall quality and scholarly content, but also adding new terms and concepts that have emerged since its first appearance. The editorial board plans to broaden the perspective to include terms frequently encountered in the literature from theoretical viewpoints not generally held by American psychoanalysts, but common in other parts of the world, about which students should be informed. An attempt will be made to maintain its compact form and succinct style, while retaining the integration evident in the present volume.
The editorial board is assisting the editors in determining policy in regard to style, format, and content. Members of the board will review the definitions submitted and make suggestions for revision, if indicated, in much the same way as the editorial board of the Journal of the American Psychoanalytic Association functions.
Each term for the Glossary will be assigned to one or more contributors, and after review and comment by the editorial board, the editors will combine the best features of those submitted in order to insure uniformity of style, balanced length, and consistent quality. Contributors of definitions will receive acknowledgement by name at the beginning of the volume, but the definitions will not be signed, since they will often be composites. This plan worked well in the case of the present Glossary.
From the beginning, the Glossary has been a project of the Association, which holds its copyright and receives all profits. The staff of the Central Office, who gave excellent cooperation in the production of the original volume, will handle the administrative details. For the revision, however, an outside publisher will insure a wider distribution. A contract has been signed with Yale University Press.
The present Glossary, now in its second edition and with many printings, was first published by the American Psychoanalytic Association in December, 1967, in connection with a Science Writers' Seminar under the sponsorship of the Committee on Public Information. Its purpose was to help correct misunderstandings of psychoanalytic theory and distortions about the profession, but it has become a standard reference work, with many citations in the psychoanalytic literature.
All members of the Association received a free copy at the time of its initial publication, and copies were also given to the press, to specialized libraries, to new members of the Association, and to new subscribers to the Journal of the American Psychoanalytic Association. Since that time there has been a continuing demand and bulk orders indicate that it is being widely used for instruction in a variety of courses in various disciplines. Approximately 20,000 copies have been sold, despite limited advertising and the fact that it has been obtainable only directly from the Central Office of the Association.
Although originally projected as a public information effort, the Glossary has demonstrated its usefulness primarily as an educational instrument for graduate analysts, analytic candidates, psychiatric residents, psychologists, social workers, and people in the behavioral disciplines generally. The revision will be addressed specifically to this group, but it is hoped that instructors of undergraduate and graduate courses in universities will find it useful for their students as well. It was for this reason—to reach a broader population—that an outside publisher was sought in this instance.
Members of the Association throughout the country will be receiving requests to submit definitions of specific terms and concepts, and the editors have expressed their confidence that they will receive the same cooperation and prompt action that characterized the production of the original Glossary.
The production of a companion volume, tentatively titled Psychoanalysis: The Major Concepts, by the same editorial board is already well advanced. The idea for it grew out of preparations for the revision of the Glossary, as the editors recognized the need for an expanded explication of the major concepts, which can be only briefly covered in the Glossary itself.
Following introductory chapters on psychoanalysis, which will include a historical review of the different phases of Freud's theory, and also chapters on the psychoanalytic process, the goals of psychoanalytic therapy, psychoanalysis and research, child analysis, and applied psychoanalysis, subsequent chapters will be devoted to an overview of thirty-two major psychoanalytic concepts.
The intent is that the chapters should be written in a relatively simple style, so that nonanalytic professionals, serious students in other fields, and first year analytic candidates will be able to understand the articles; they should also describe present day concepts in an integrated picture, have illustrative clinical material if possible, be reasonably comprehensive, and include indications of controversy. At the same time they should be sufficiently sophisticated to interest and educate analysts by providing an overview of the development of the concept, its present status, controversial aspects, and emerging trends. Adequate references will be given.
Unlike the Glossary, however, which has an already accepted place as a publication of the Association, the companion volume will be published independently and will not bear the imprimatur of the Association. There are sufficient divergencies of viewpoint about theory within the Association to make it seem advisable to present the essays in the new volume as a work for which only the editorial board and the contributors are responsible. Otherwise, it might be taken as an official statement of theory by the Association.