To the Editor:

For some time, I have been one of a minority of psychoanalysts who believes the pendulum of our fortunes is beginning to move in the other direction. It certainly is here in New Orleans, where both psychiatric departments have swung around quite dramatically. At any rate, I hope the Newsletter can legitimately restore some of the lost pride in our profession which, after all, deserves it as much as any intellectual discipline.

I don't mean an attitude like, “Well, what little scraps of good news can we scrounge about for?”—We don't need that; there is plenty of evidence that a renaissance is stirring. But we have been sorely wounded—our pride, I mean—by sadistic attacks from without and—much more—by masochistic attacks by our own colleagues, many of whom seem to have good access to a public news media practically slavering for news of our demise. In my opinion, it isn't a matter of the news media itself being implacably hostile —only some individuals within it.

Best wishes for a good time as Editor!

Vann Spruiell, M.D.

New Orleans