Now We Are Five: An Anniversary for IP.Net
Nathan Szajnberg, MD, Managing Editor
On January 23, 2006, Arnie Richards opened the first issue of International Psychoanalysis with spirited words about Freud: a scientist and humanist, winner of the Goethe prize in literature, a keen observer of human nature, Freud taught us, “words can change the way we think and feel and relate…” Click Here to Read: Arnold Richards’s Inaugural Post on “Freud Envy.” Arnie also noted that Freud compared the speculative metapsychology(ies) to scaffolding which can be dismantled without disturbing the house constructed.
Psychoanalysis is a slow-moving enterprise; also a private one. When Erik Erikson was approached by Time magazine to be Man of the Year (front cover), he allegedly refused, speaking to the quieter, more restrained stance of psychoanalysis. We ain’t Front-Page-ish.
Yet, what ground IP.net has covered in five years, as if carried by some atmospheric jet stream above continents of psychoanalytic thinking. Here’s the list of psychoanalytic organizations associated with IP.net: AAPDP, ACPE, AIP, APsaA, IPA, IPTAR, MITPP, NYFS, NYPSI, WCSPP. These reflect an openess to this online journal, steps towards building a sense of disciplinary community.
And look at the categories of postings: original articles, reprinted classics, links to journals, poetry, photography, book and reviews (A Dangerous Method, reviewed by DJ Fisher has now been linked to dozens of other reviews.), audio-visual links and science links. The AV links read like a dim sum menu of beautiful, translucently wrapped, intellectual treats: Kohut’s last talk on empathy Click Here to Read This Article ; the Nobelist Kahneman on thinking; Click Here to Read This Article; Woody Allen and Dick Cavett on psychoanalysis Click Here to Read This Article; Young Bruehl on Arendt Click Here to Read This Article ; Sigmund Freud in 1938. Click Here to Listen to the Audio.
Arnie invited me to join as Managing Editor last fall. We now have original pieces or important reprints, such as Bobby Paul on psychoanalytic cultures Click Here to Read To Read This Article, DJ Fisher on Lacan; Kirsner on psychoanalytic history Click Here To Read This Article; Leutzinger-Bohleber on school intervention Click Here to Read: This Article; Goldenberg on soldiers’ experiences Click Here To Read This Article; Arlow on Institutes Click Here To Read This Article; Frattaroli on intrafraternal battles in psychoanalysis Click Here To Read This Article, Part I; Click Here to Read this Article, Part 2, as well as articles I’ve written on emotions and psychoanalysis, Steve Jobs Click Here To Read This Article , or trying to escape mourning (David Grossman’s To the Ends of the Land) Click Here To Read This Article.
My first words as Managing Editor spoke of IP.net as a Central Park of psychoanalysis: a gathering place to explore, to wander or to visit specific areas: the Zoo, the skating rink, Strawberry Fields, Jackie Onassis Reservoir. A place to meet others or to seek solitude and reflection. Arnie Richards is the Olmsted/Vaughn of this refuge.
We hope to continue in this now almost tradition.