With this summer issue, we are delighted to bring you another quality-packed issue, we believe – featuring a special theme symposium assembled expertly by our dear friend and colleague, Professor Colin Feltham, who brings a very varied, highly readable selection of articles on the highly pertinent theme of Depressive Realism (DR). We'll leave Colin to provide the best possible introduction to the articles, but at this juncture we'd like to add that in a forthcoming issue of the journal, we're intending to publish a series of commentaries on, and responses to, this DR symposium from eminent humanistic/existential folk, as we anticipate that these articles will evoke strong responses from our readers. Colin will, quite appropriately, have the last word in a closing rejoinder to these commentaries, but a full debate around these important challenges to Humanistic Psychology/humanism will only be enhanced by any viewpoints that readers might wish to share via our letters page.
To complete the theme symposium, and very much in the spirit of it, we also include Colin's own impressive and lucid review of best-selling author – and, according to Colin, fellow Depressive Realist – John Gray's latest book, The Soul of the Marionette. All told, then, challenging and provocative fare indeed – especially for we, generally sunny, humanistics! One thing you'll never get in this journal while we're the editors is self-satisfied humanistic complacency!
In this issue we also include a major critical symposium on the work of the much-admired and highly influential American transpersonal philosopher, psychologist and writer, Ken Wilber. This is a sometimes robust exchange, which shows what passions Wilber's work arouses, both positive and negative – which perhaps raises some of the core tensions that Humanistic Psychology itself is challenged to address. We offer fulsome thanks to Manu Bazzano, John Rowan and William West for this excellent and thought-provoking dialogue, which we hope and expect will generate correspondence to the journal.
In our reviews section, expertly collated as always by Manu Bazzano, we have among others a fascinating account of a man who could easily be described as the Italian R. D. Laing – Franco Basaglia – and also a terrific piece on what is becoming a popular theme, both in this journal and in the wider world, on the benefits of walking; and a review of Malcolm Parlett's book Future Sense. As many of you will know, Malcolm Parlett has been the leading light in British Gestalt for the past several decades and was for many years, before he retired, the highly distinguished editor of the justly celebrated British Gestalt Journal.
And last but by no means least, we have Robert Sardello's latest wisdom-filled column.
All in all, then, a splendid issue to stimulate you (in the northern hemisphere, at least) on the warm summer evenings to come.