JOURNAL DE LA PSYCHANALYSE DE L'ENFANT

In 1979, the initial idea that brought together several psychoanalysts from the Association psychanalytique de France—among them Pierre and Claudine Geissmann, Pierre Ferrari, Didier Houzel, and Annie Anzieu—was the need to exchange and develop ideas together. They were all convinced of the originality of practicing with children and its obvious role in psychoanalysis. A few years later, in 1986, new developments in their thinking and a desire to leave a trace of the work they had done, coupled with the absence in the French press of a specifically suitable publication, led the group to constitute an editorial committee and to create the Journal de la psychanalyse d'enfants (Journal of child psychoanalysis), which has been published ever since by Bayard Presse.

The idea of the Journal, a sort of forum for writing that sheds light on a given theme from various different angles, leaves readers the freedom to make their own choices and to use or disregard editorial suggestions. Reading notes usually deal with the issues of the day. A network of French and foreign correspondents has been established — Robin Anderson (London), Yolanda Gampel (Tel Aviv), David Rosenfeld (Buenos Aires), Jochen Stork (Munich) — to guarantee the diversity of currents of thought and the people presenting them. In addition, contributors have included Otto Kernberg in America, Suzanne Maiello in Italy, Kleinian and post-Kleinian authors, Hanna Segal, the Tavistock Clinic, Frances Tustin, and, in France, Didier Anzieu, Serge Lebovici, and Geneviève Haag, to mention but a few.

Given the fact that it appears twice yearly, the subjects selected by the editorial committee are announced long enough in advance to enable everyone to make personal contributions and prospective authors to do the work required. Evaluation of submitted texts takes account of their formal qualities but most of all the relationship between theory and clinical practice as revealed in the vicissitudes of the transference.

As chief editor, Pierre Geissmann did most of the coordinating, liaising, and translating until November 1995. His loss is deeply felt, but his dynamism and rigor continue to be a model for the editorial committee and for Claudine Geissmann and Didier Houzel, who have replaced him.

Jean-Claude Guillaume

See also: France; Child psychoanalysis.