Introduction to the American Edition

Psychoanalysis is over 100 years old. Over the course of the 20th century, many new terms and concepts have been added to Freud's original constructs. This evolution has occurred not just in Vienna, Berlin, or Europe, but rather, all over the world. Consequently, new ideas have been formulated throughout and across the increasingly far-flung psychoanalytic community, and despite the existence of an international organization with a rich scientific program, regularly published journals, and an abundance of meetings and exchanges, the language of psychoanalysis is not as uniform as one would expect. Some concepts are understood differently and more importantly, have varying implications in different parts of the world. Other ideas are highly developed and given special status in some countries, while they are unknown or rarely utilized in others. To complicate matters further, schools of thought have developed with variant degrees of deviation from Freud's metapsychology.

A student entering the field of psychoanalysis today has a more difficult task than students of previous generations, in that there is much more to learn and understand, and a greater imperative to be in communication with colleagues in other parts of the world. To integrate the disparate concepts elaborated in different parts of the world, today's practitioner and anyone interested in the history of psychoanalysis must know, understand, and be capable of evaluating many divergent ideas and theoretical constructs. Well-informed dialogue among colleagues from different countries with other perspectives demands that psychoanalysts have a resource—a handbook, so to speak—that provides a brief, concise, but nevertheless sufficiently rigorous exposition of the lexicon of the field.

There have been some attempts in the past to create a dictionary and a glossary of psychoanalysis; The Language of Psychoanalysis by Laplanche and Pontalis is one such major effort in this direction; another is the glossary prepared under the aegis of the American Psychoanalytic Association. However, neither of these two works, as useful as they have been, has been able to cover all the disparate concepts, and many analysts have felt the need for an international encyclopedia of psychoanalysis. This need has become even more acute as psychoanalysts have become increasingly interested in facilitating an international exchange of ideas.

When Dr. de Mijolla decided to embark on this project, he was undertaking a Herculean task, but one whose value is unquestionable. Naturally, it would be impossible for one person to develop such an encyclopedia alone, and therefore, it was essential that he obtain the help of psychoanalysts from all over the world. Thus, the 1569 entries in this volume are the work of many contributors, with some contributing more than one entry. While such an arrangement made the timely development of an encyclopedia possible, it also created difficulties in the achievement of a uniform style. On the other hand, there is an important advantage to this way of proceeding, in that authors known to be experts on a particular subject could contribute an entry in their area of specialization, enhancing the quality of the entries.

A second challenge, and one more specific to the English edition, is the difficulty in translating from the original French text. The team working on this edition has done its best to make the translations as fluid and easily comprehensible as possible. Nevertheless, given the number of translators and the inherent difficulties of interpretation, there may occasionally be a certain degree of rigidity to the sentences or differences from entry to entry. The final product, however, manages to offer a text that is simultaneously eminently approachable and extremely useful.

It will also become clear upon perusing the dictionary that a substantial number of the authors are French. As a result, there is more material on areas of psychoanalysis that have either developed more fully in France or are mostly used by French analysts. This, of course, makes the dictionary a unique source for anyone interested in understanding specific notions and concepts that are prevalent in the thinking of French psychoanalysts. It does, however, engender less coverage of ego psychology, conflict theory, and relational theory by the French authors; moreover, the impression of a negative view of ego psychology, in particular, and American psychoanalysis in general may be an artifact of the composition of the group of contributors. This is not surprising, given the lack of acceptance of Hartman's views in France, particularly by Lacan. Additionally, the animosity that developed between Rudolph Loewenstein and Jacques Lacan had no small hand in the increasingly critical attitude taken by the latter towards ego psychology. Some in France consider ego psychology to be too close to the conscious, and perhaps even too superficial, and therefore are dismissive of it, a viewpoint for which the reader may see evidence in some of the entries. On the other hand, American analysts, if writing about French psychoanalysis, could possibly take a prejudicial attitude and accuse French psychoanalysts of doing "wild analysis." However, with the increase in dialogue and exchange between French and American analysts, these sorts of prejudices are diminishing, and the sharing of perspectives has enriched the members of both groups. As one example of such cross-fertilization, this current edition of the encyclopedia has attempted to present ego psychology and compromise theory in a more balanced way, with the addition of a number of new entries, such as that of Dr. Charles Brenner on modern conflict theory. In addition, to supplement those entries that refer too exclusively to French works, this edition has added a list of suggested readings with references to American sources, compiled by Matthew von Unwerth.

The reader may also notice that the biographies of some prominent psychoanalysts are not mentioned in this volume, as only deceased analysts are included. Unfortunately, some omissions are unavoidable in any reference work that attempts to be as comprehensive as this encyclopedia. Hopefully, the reader will find the addition of photos from the archives of psychoanalysis enlivening and enriching.

Finally, I would like to thank those whose beneficent help made this work not only possible, but even enjoyable. Alain de Mijolla is of course, first and foremost, not only for entrusting me with this task, but also for allowing me a free hand, to a large extent, and for trusting my opinion on those occasions when independent judgment was needed. Nathalie Duval was another important anchor, enormously supportive and unfailingly good-humored, even at the most difficult moments. Her staff, too, was of great help, always in the background, unassuming, but faithfully executing the necessary tasks to ensure the work could proceed smoothly. A special word of thanks goes to the editors and translators whose work could not have been easy, considering the amount of highly technical material that required faithful interpretation. I would particularly like to single out the work of Donald Nicholson-Smith who never ceased to amaze me with his understanding of the semantics of psychoanalytic language and the elegance and precision of his translations. And, finally, in the end, my gratitude and I am sure that of yours, the reader, goes to the men and women who penned the original entries, as well as a special grateful acknowledgment to those analysts who have added their contributions to this new edition of the encyclopedia.

EDWARD NERSESSIAN