Editorial

We are delighted to be able to open this, the twenty-seventh edition of Existential Analysis, with seven presentations from among the very many given at the historic first World Congress for Existential Therapy, which was held in London in May last year. We hope that these will serve as an aide-mémoire for readers who attended this event, and are sure that they will be of interest to readers who were not able to participate. A number of other speakers are currently preparing papers based on their presentations, and we plan to include as many of these as possible in the next volume of this Journal.

This volume also contains five papers addressing a wide variety of topics of relevance to existential thought and therapeutic practice. These include a paper by Branca Sá Pires proposing a 'preliminary' model for working with children and adolescents, and a research-based paper by Sofia Alegria et al. which examines 'the therapeutic process' in existential therapy. We are particularly pleased to continue the international tone set by our Congress papers, (which include contributions from – for the first time – China, as well as from Switzerland and the U.S.), with the inclusion of submissions from Greece, Hungary and Portugal. The international flavour of the volume is indicative of the spread of interest in existential therapy documented by Edgar Correia, Mick Cooper and Lucia Berdondini in their 'Extensive List' of existential therapy organizations around the world, which concludes this volume's papers.

It is with sadness, but also with a sense of celebration, that we include two commemorative pieces: Ernesto Spinelli has written an obituary for Professor Alvin Mahrer, whose work will be familiar to many readers; he is also the co-author, with Susanna Rennie, of a very moving meditation on life and death, in which Susanna reflects powerfully and illuminatingly on her own experience of terminal illness.

As always, we include a number of highly-engaging book reviews; our thanks to Martin Adams who can be contacted if you would like to review any titles from our list of publications received for review.

Simon du Plock
Greg Madison