Editorial

This, the first edition of the sixteenth volume of Existential Analysis, contains a wide-ranging collection of papers authored by contributors both familiar to the readership, and presenting between these covers for the first time. Of the familiar names alongside the fifteen papers here, we might mention Thomas Szasz, who has been associated with this Journal as a member of the Editorial Board and as an occasional contributor for some years. Szasz is represented by two papers, (one of standard length and one shorter paper), both of which raise interesting questions regarding what is 'existential' about significant figures, among them R.D. Laing, in our field. Anthony Stadlen, another familiar figure to most subscribers of Existential Analysis, contributes a paper which draws attention to the specifically medical nature of Medard Boss' Daseinsanalysis.

Other thought-provoking papers by authors not previously published in this Journal also raise fundamental questions about the nature of the therapeutic endeavour and, in doing so, offer examples of praxis. They include a paper by Mary Duhig which engages with the question 'What is psychotherapy?' from an existential-phenomenological perspective; that by Brindley Yare which traces connections between Karl Jasper's observations on the nature of human communication and the practice of existential psychotherapy; and that by Alfried Langle on 'personal meaning', which introduces the reader to existential Analytical Psychotherapy.

Mention should also be made of Edgar Correia's paper; this contribution from an existential theorist and practitioner based in Lisbon, Portugal, draws on the thinking of Emmanuel Levinas, and points up its relevance for existential-phenomenological practice, thus returning us once again to praxis.

Simon du Plock

John Heaton