Bulletin of the Psychoanalytic Research Society, Volume I, Number 1, Spring, 1992
It is not only analysands that suffer from chronic resistances, forces that impede healthy strivings, thwart efforts to change, and limit abilities to take risks. A discipline can also suffer from resistances with similar destructive consequences. During most of its 90-year history, psychoanalysis has suffered from a chronic and pervasive hermeneutic resistance, which has siphoned off its energy, curtailed its development, and interfered with its ability to look at itself in a new way. It is for this reason that the Psychoanalytic Research Society (Section Six) and the Bulletin we now publish hold promise, not only for those of us who do psychoanalytic research, but also, for those of us who do psychoanalytic practice.
For both groups, this first issue of the Bulletin of the Psychoanalytic Research Society has much to commend it. We call your attention to three of our sections: First, we are particularly pleased with the caliber of the contributions included in our "Feature Articles." Joseph Masling has written a provocative essay on the many reasons for the lack of communication between psychoanalytic researcher and clinician. Then, Seymour Fisher succinctly reviews the trends in psychoanalytic research that he has discovered while updating his landmark text in which he and Roger Greenberg carefully weigh the scientific evidence for Freudian hypotheses. Dr. Fisher expresses pleasure in the quality and direction of the new studies he reviews. Second, Harold Cook's presidential message includes a brief history of the evolution of the Psychoanalytic Research Society and a statement of its direction. In addition, he calls our attention to three Society-sponsored upcoming events that will be of great interest to both practitioner and researcher. Third, within the "Research Notes," in each issue we will publish a bibliography or annotated references of recent research that has particular significance for psychoanalytic practice. In this issue, we focus on the narcissistic personality disorder and the borderline conditions.
This newsletter will be published twice a year. Its depth, breath and success depends, to large measure, on your active participation. Please send us brief articles relating to the psychoanalytic research focus of this publication, for example, book reviews, topical manuscripts, letters to the editor, general announcements, and statements of research in progress. Articles should be submitted in duplicate (typed, double-spaced) and/or on IBM or Apple disk (in text files). Deadline for Fall issue: September 15; for Spring issue: February 1.
In closing, I would like to thank the people who were invaluable to the completion of this project. First and foremost, those New York City-based members of the Executive Board of the Psychoanalytic Research Society, Drs. Harold Cook, Carol Geisha, Gwendolyn Gerber and Joe Turkel who conceived of the idea for the Bulletin, made important suggestions and, gently guided me around the pitfalls of my inexperience. Second, Linda Murphy, a Clinical Psychology graduate student at Teacher's College, Columbia University, who, with the aid of her desk-top publishing skills, transformed the typewritten text into a publication that is more pleasing-to-the-eye. And finally, Maris Bishops, who conceived of and executed the logo and drawing that has added much to the "look and feel" of this newsletter.