Abstract
Like analysts, writers are keen observers of human behavior. They traffic in the same themes we do (love, intimacy, identity, trauma, disappointment, and loss), but without the bounds of psychoanalytic scholarship. When JAPA editor-in-chief Gregory Rizzolo approached me with the idea of adding creative nonfiction writing to the journal, I was intrigued. I went in search of literary authors who write with a deep psychological understanding.
Our inaugural selection, “The Future,” by Pulitzer Prize winner Richard Russo, explores what happens when the world as we know it is turned upside down; when a harsh reality forces us to accept a future we never imagined and one that we fear. Drawing on the film Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid as a metaphor, Russo carefully answers the question we often don’t ask: What is it exactly that invokes our deepest fears?
We invite you to read these essays—written specifically for this journal—and reflect on what they tell us about the complexity of human experience, from a writer’s perspective. Our hope is that by engaging with other forms of writing (and other ways of knowing), we will evoke new and surprising resonances and, at the same time, revel in the beauty of great writing.