Editorial

Abstract

Welcome to the first issue of 2023. The APP recently changed its name, rebranding as the Association for Psychoanalytic Psychotherapy in the Public Sector. One of the reasons for this name change was a recognition of the breadth of settings beyond the NHS which use applied psychoanalytic thinking and practice. This includes not only the UK public sector but also numerous international settings, some of which were described in our recent ‘State of the Psychoanalytic Nation’ series of special issues (Cundy, 2022; Yakeley, 2020, 2021). The journal aims to reflect this scope, and welcomes contributions from around the globe. To this end Golan Shahar was appointed to the newly created role of ‘International Editor’ last year. Consequently I am delighted that this is a truly international issue, with each article originating from a different country. In our first paper, Nicole Canin (UK) offers a 25-year scoping review of psychoanalytic journal articles on premature birth from 1997 to 2021. Her findings highlight the trauma of premature birth, both for the infant and its parents. Prematurity may also place the parent-infant relationship at risk. The therapeutic imperative of interacting with the infant as a person is strongly emphasised. The evidence suggests that working in the NICU is emotionally challenging. However, a case is made for the critical role that psychoanalytic practitioners can play in supporting those impacted by premature infancy. Canin identifies gaps in the literature describing the experiences of siblings and fathers of premature infants, and the intersubjective processes that occur between premature infants and their parents. She highlights an overall lack of articles on the topic of prematurity, perhaps a consequence of the intensity of emotional pain inherent in working in this field, and argues that this area requires further attention given the prevalence of prematurity and its profound impact on infant development and parenting. The second article, by Fabiola Cortezia and Tagma Donelli from Brazil, continues our focus on the new-born. In ‘Parent-infant psychoanalytic psychotherapy when child development is at risk: process assessment’ they present a case study of a baby, her parents and a psychotherapist to describe the process and therapeutic interventions when child development is at risk. Developmental risk was assessed using the Risk Indicators for Child Development (IRDI). Thirty parent-infant psychotherapy sessions conducted over nine months were recorded in audio and video for subsequent analysis and classification by two independent observers. Frequency analysis and qualitative analysis of the collected data were performed. The results showed that there was a change in the types and number of therapeutic interventions used over the course of the treatment. The interventions which occurred the most were those specific to parent-infant psychoanalytic psychotherapy when child development is at risk, Psychoanalytic Psychotherapy, 2023 Vol. 37, No. 1, 1–3, https://doi.org/10.1080/02668734.2023.2186071