Introductions and Invitations

To our readers and authors,

We stand in the soaring shadow of T. Byram Karasu, who has been an ideal editor for the American Journal of Psychotherapy (AJP) during these past 17 years. Dr. Karasu is a scholar, integrative theoretician, poet, and most important, a teacher and clinician. He not only respects the empirical basis and evidential support for modes of psychotherapy, but he also recognizes that psychotherapy is more relational than technological. According to Dr. Karasu, the good psychotherapist is a wise listener and healing presence. Having worked closely with him for over three decades, we can attest that Dr. Karasu is the epitome of the wise and healing psychotherapist. We are honored that he has elected us as his successors; we hope to carry on his legacy as we assume considerable responsibilities as the editor-in-chief and deputy editor of the American Journal of Psychotherapy.

The American Journal of Psychotherapy was the first scholarly journal to focus on psychotherapy from a trans-theoretical perspective. The Journal has an extraordinary history, publishing important contributions to our field since 1947. Many of these papers were ground-breaking theoretical advances. It is our general concern that departments of psychiatry pay too little attention to the integration of psychotherapy into their clinical programs. Many in the field have narrowed their focus to research in biological psychiatry and psychopharmacological interventions. When psychotherapy is mentioned, it is often limited to a discussion of randomized clinical trials of manualized treatment approaches. We are delighted at the increased dialogue brought to the journal from therapists whose expertise in psychotherapy is based in psychology and sociology. We believe that the expansion in scope of AJP has fulfilled the aim of the that set out by Frederic Wertham (1947), who, in his introduction of the premier issue of AJP noted: “Special attention will be devoted to . . . psychosomatic medicine, the social sciences and the wide field of education” (p. 1). As the American Journal of Psychotherapy has demonstrated for more than 65 years, psychotherapy has the potential to offer the richness of support and comfort to our patients. Under our editorship, we hope to continue the conversation about psychotherapy, and tap into and explore that richness.

We encourage authors to submit papers on a wide range of topics in psychotherapy—theoretical advances, case studies, literature reviews, practical issues related to the delivery and dissemination of therapeutic approaches, as well as empirical studies of effectiveness. We hope to organize special issues on selected topics in psychotherapy; our goal is to bring readers more comprehensive reviews and discussions on these areas of interest. We also plan to honor the great legacy of AJP by reprinting some of the classic and illustrious papers. We invite our readers to communicate with us regarding their concerns and suggestions. In closing, we reiterate how honored we are to assume responsibility for the Journal, and we look forward to an intellectually rewarding collaboration with you, our readers and authors.