Psychoanalytic psychotherapy has a unique contribution to make to the understanding and treatment of psychological disorder. In essence, psychoanalysis is the therapeutic application of the science of interpersonal interaction. Moving towards and contemporary account of psychoanalysis that takes into account the findings of neuroscience and genetics, and links those with the cutting edge of other psychotherapies, such as CBT, is an urgent task for psychosocial psychiatry. It is hopes that this issue of Psychiatry will help in a small way to further that aim.