This is the first volume of an annual dedicated to the study of primitive mental states. We are drawn to and fascinated by the primitive, yet its meanings are multiple and complex. Primitive has been used synonymously with early, original, unorganized, organizing, random, deep, regressed, savage, fundamental, Dionysian, demonic, pregenital, and archetypal, among other terms. Primitive mental states are paradoxically described as highly sophisticated and deeply unsophisticated; as originating in culture or biology; as being spiritual, intrapsychic and intrasubjective. As is clear, though the...