JPSS is a new International e-Journal dedicated to publishing scholarly articles, works in progress, new ideas and book reviews in the fields of Psycho-Social Studies, Psychoanalysis, Philosophy, Group Relations, Politics and Sociology. We particularly welcome contributions from postgraduate students and those just starting their publishing career.

We take a broad and interdisciplinary approach to scholarly research and writing, and welcome papers that cross disciplinary boundaries, or look at established ideas from a new perspective. All forms and schools of psychoanalytic thought, philosophy, sociology and political thinking are covered in this journal, and in particular the way they intersect with the social world. We publish papers that address theory, practice and empirical research and as such welcome the submission of works in progress. For example, the study of human emotion is huge, explanations range from social constructionist accounts (Harré, 1986); Psychoanalytic readings of Envy (Klein, 1957); Existential insights through Sartre; biological and cognitive musings through James (1890) and Darwin (1890); philosophical revelations in Nietzsche, and of course the recent sociological debates between Craib (1995, 1997), and Williams and Bendelow (1996, 1998). We would encourage contributions that either synthesize or build on these ideas in a constructive, critical, or radical way.

The Journal is hosted by the Centre for Psycho-Social Studies which is situated in the Faculty of Humanities, Languages and Social Science at the University of the West of England, Bristol. The Centre encompasses a wide range of research interests and theoretical positions which share in common a commitment to psychoanalytic and other non-rationalist understandings of the human subject. We are also concerned with the application of such perspectives to organisational, social and political issues and with the mutual influencing of psychoanalysis and contemporary social and political theory. Finally, some of the members of the Centre are interested in the history of psychoanalysis and allied disciplines such as Group Relations and with the development of the therapeutic culture. As we see it, psycho-social studies bridge the gap between theory and practice - several of the group are experienced Group Relations consultants and one is in training as a psychoanalytic psychotherapist, some have been involved practically in politics. A psycho-social approach links society, structure and affect in a way that sociology, psychology and social psychology have been largely unable to do. Structure and affect, the social and the psyche are inseparable in terms of the explanation of social phenomena. This calls for a huge change in the way we think about research methods - how we know and how we can come to know about the world. There is thus an emphasis on the psychodynamic, the way in which the internal and external worlds are mediated by the group and individual and connect in ways which enable us to explain, make sense of, think about and exist in the world.

A psycho-social perspective therefore insists on the meaningfulness of human phenomena and experience, and their communicative nature irrespective of whether the phenomenon in question is an impulsive act of violence, a bodily condition such as anorexia, or an apparently nonsensical and repetitive act. Whilst it seeks the connections between body, psyche and society, it also recognises the irreducibility of any one of these domains vis a vis the others. It eschews all forms of reductionism and, as such, constitutes a challenge to sociological imperialism as much as to the psychological or medical/biological. Because no single discipline can hope to offer an adequate explanation, the psycho-social perspective is truly interdisciplinary and may enable us to start thinking in a different way about social problems and their possible solutions.

The contributions and papers in this first edition of the journal all reflect this ethos in some way. In the first paper C. Fred Alford asks us 'Is Murder Impossible?' Using a synthesis of philosophical and psychoanalytic ideas, and drawing on his own empirical research with murderers, Alford explores the nature of violence and human distance. Don Carveth's paper reflects on Lacanian theory in relation to other trends in psychoanalysis. Carveth argues that psychoanalysts and analysands suffer from a tendency to swing between the Lacanian symbolic and imaginary, to privilege one or other, and to form binary oppositions. A split between the pessimism of those who cry Fort! on the one hand, and those who optimistically cry Da! on the other. We need to get on and play the dialectical game in order to develop a healthy self argues Carveth. The third paper, a work which was originally published in Free Associationsearlier this year, and is reproduced by the kind permission of Bob Young, addresses the relationship between Freudian and Kleinian theory and the way in which it may leave us better placed to understand the socio-psychodynamics of racism and ethnic hatred.

Lynne Layton's paper 'Psychoanalysis and the "Free" Individual' is a wonderful example of the meshing of psychoanalytic ideas, practice, and social problems. Layton explores that which brings about change in the psychoanalytic treatment of individuals and how this might carry over into thinking about social change. Ultimately Layton argues that good social policy and good psychoanalysis have to attend to linking again what dominant discourses have split apart. Barry Richards paper,  although differing in style to Layton's (it was the basis of Richards inaugural lecture) has at its center the same type of themes. Richards sets down firmly the basis of psycho-social studies, and in particular the relationship between the psychological, political and social.  Finally Robert Young's paper Psychoanalysis, 'Terrorism and Fundamentalism' brings to us a wealth of Kleinian ideas that help us to understand the interrelationship between inner and outer worlds, between the psyche, the social and the political. In this paper Young argues that the future of civilization and perhaps humanity hang in the balance in the wake of Sept 11, and the pursuant feelings of retribution, revenge and the massive psychotic anxieties that have been mobilised. Psychodynamic ideas about individuals, groups and society are tremendously important as they enable us to recognise these psychotic anxieties and the dangerous projective identifications that do so much to create what they fear.

The final section of the journal contains two works in progress. One from Mark Bracher on Social Justice and a paper from John Bird which addresses the psychodynamics of cyberspace. This is a particularly important section of the journal which we hope will increase in size and submission. This section is quite literally for works in progress, for new ideas and for research projects that are at an early stage. We would particularly encourage new and up-and-coming researchers, writers, academics and practitioners to share their ideas with us.The rationale behind this e-journal is therefore threefold. First to foster a virtual research environment in the field of Psycho-Social Studies. Second to encourage up-and-coming researchers to publish and share their work, and finally to create a valuable resource of papers, book reviews and ideas. As such copyright will remain with the authors and we would encourage you to eventually submit papers and subscribe to the print journals that we support, in particular Free Associations, Journal for the Psychoanalysis of Culture and Society, and Organisational and Social Dynamics. The editors would particularly like to thank the international editorial board for their support in launching this journal and for their generous submission of papers for this first edition

Simon Clarke
Jem Thomas and John Bird
November 2002