Editorial

We are very pleased to be able to open this, the twenty-second edition of Existential Analysis, with the Talk from the Chair delivered by Paul McGinley at the Annual General Meeting of the Society for Existential Analysis in March 2010. In this paper Paul discusses the understanding of the self which has been adopted by many practitioners within the 'British School of Existential Psychotherapy'. Richard Pearce, in his paper, On Being a Person. Sartre's Contribution to Psychotherapy, also explores an aspect of this central concern for therapeutic work.

Pina Shinebourne, in her paper on Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis, presents an issue of considerable import given our increasing engagement with the whole notion of research – what it means, whether we are able to critique the ways in which other therapeutic orientations have generated research, and how we can undertake research congruent with our core existential-phenomenological values. There is increasing debate within our existential-phenomenological community regarding the value and validity of various ways of inquiring into practice. Shinebourne presents a fascinating extension of this discussion which has appeared in previous editions of this journal, including recent articles authored by Amedeo Giorgi and Jonathan Smith among other contributors.

This research theme is continued by Gloria Peña et al in a paper on work undertaken in Mexico, while Bryony Walker and Mark Burgess provide a further example of IPA in their study of the experience of a group of professional jazz musicians. There are many other excellent and thought-provoking papers in this number of the Journal, and we hope these offerings will encourage and inspire readers to write responses and to submit their own work for publication. We are delighted to welcome Dr Darren Langdridge as the latest scholar to join our Editorial Board. Readers will be aware of his ground-breaking contributions to qualitative research – most recently perhaps in the form of critical narrative analysis (CNA) – which he introduced in Phenomenological Psychology, published in 2007. Doubtless we will receive contributions to the Journal using or critiquing CNA in due course.

On a final note we would like to congratulate the Society of Existential Analysis on the success of its recent annual conference, Sexistential, held in London November 20-21. As editors we hope to be able to publish papers from the conference in upcoming issues of the Journal.

Simon du Plock

Greg Madison