Thirty years of the International Forum of Psychoanalysis

Thirty years of the International Forum of Psychoanalysis means 30 years of psychoanalytic texts from many authors, well-known colleagues as well as younger colleagues who have been encouraged by their institutes or by the International Federation of Psychoanalytic Societies (IFPS) fora to publish their ideas. The journal has always offered a broad view from and into the psychoanalytic world. History, theory, and clinical practice have all been represented with highstandard papers. Promoting the dialogue between countries and continents has been part of the journal’s policy, as has promoting the dialogue between authors belonging to IFPS member institutes and those who are active in the International Psychoanalytical Association (IPA) or not represented internationally. That well-known IPA psychoanalysts like Helmut Thomä and Horst Kächele have contributed to the journal has been a highlight in the usually only scarcely existing dialogue between the two international psychoanalytic organizations. Topics and lectures presented at international fora have been presented, revealing the broad spectrum and topics of the IFPS societies – “classical” psychoanalysis, object relations theory, Lacanian psychoanalysis, self psychology, and interpersonal psychoanalysis, to name just a few. The fora and the journal have always been a bridge between Anglo-American, Latin American, and European approaches. In addition, contributions from other psychoanalysis-related conferences such as the 2007 Jubilee Symposium of the International Association for Forensic Psychotherapy (IAFP) have been included in the journal (2009). Psychoanalytic work in particular continents and countries has been presented (for example, Germany in 2018, Italy in 1994, and Switzerland in 2014), offering the reader a view of different styles and cultures. The Swiss Institute of Psychoanalysis Zürich-Kreuzlingen (IfP) was admitted into the IFPS in 1998, and so far the journal has published 11 papers written by members of the IfP. Core concepts of the IfP, such as the dialogue between philosophy and psychoanalysis, and psychoanalysis in institutions, have been published, as well as the obituary of our founder and long-time president Norman Elrod. Our concepts, as well as the life and work of Ludwig Binswanger, the long-timedirector ofBellevueSanatorium inKreuzlingen, Switzerland and an important psychoanalyst, philosopher, psychiatrist, and friend of Sigmund Freud, have beenmade familiar to the English-speaking readership through the journal. The philosophical papers have also been a bridge between the existential analysis movements in Switzerland and Brazil, there have been contributions about psychoanalysis in institutions to the international discussions about different settings for psychoanalysis, and the political contributions have shown that psychoanalysis is not restricted to clinical practice. As member of the executive committee of the IFPS, long-time reader, reviewer, regional editor, and author in the journal, I wish it a productive further 30 years!