The May 2025 issue of the British Journal of Psychotherapy offers a compelling range of articles delving into psychoanalytic theory, clinical practice, and societal intersections. Johanna Velt’s “From Denial to the Power of Saying No: The Story of a Sick Child” explores the psychological journey of a child grappling with illness, emphasizing the transformative role of agency in healing. In “Adverse Childhood Experiences, Personality Organization and Suicidal Thoughts: The Mediating Role of Psychache”, Mojtaba Rahimian Bougar and colleagues investigate how early trauma influences personality and suicidal ideation, mediated by psychological pain. Christopher Cartner’s “Epistemological Plurality and Hermeneutics in Psychoanalysis” examines diverse epistemological frameworks in psychoanalytic interpretation. The open-access article “Sitting with Invisible Difference: Psychoanalytics and Autism” by Nardus Saayman, Clare Harvey, and Tracy Davies Fletcher provides a nuanced exploration of autism within psychoanalytic practice, highlighting the challenges and insights of working with neurodiversity. Sheila Levi’s “The Cut: Psychoanalysis with a Third-Generation Holocaust Survivor” delves into transgenerational trauma, while Juliana Torres Porto das Neves and colleagues’ “Shared Trauma: Possible Implications for the Analytical Field” examines the impact of collective trauma on the therapeutic relationship. Anna Kovalets’ “Hysteria and the Birth of the New” offers a fresh perspective on hysteria’s role in psychoanalytic innovation. The issue also includes reviews, such as Barry Richards’ take on Judith Butler’s *Who’s Afraid of Gender?*, and an obituary for Paul Gordon by Graham Music, reflecting on his contributions to psychotherapy.
You can see the full list of articles in the issue, here.