Introduction

This introduction presents an overview of the key concepts discussed in the subsequent chapters of this book. The book demonstrates the consistent way the psychoanalytic culture responds to and reflects the social and political culture of its host countries. It offers not only a description of the history of the International Psychoanalytical Association (IPA) in its constituent countries and cultures, also what authors are uniquely able to do, the presentation of assessments, interpretations, and evaluations of conscious and unconscious developments based on an intimate "local knowledge" of events. The book examines the interrelatedness and tension in the reception of psychoanalysis with the different surrounds in each land and culture. A major function of the IPA is fostering the highest quality of psychoanalytic training in various parts of our shrinking global world. The IPA has served as an arbiter of local and international disputes, and even conflicts within local psychoanalytic societies due to personal clashes and competing theoretical orientations.