Ferenczi's Rise and Fall from “Analytic Grace”: The Ferenczi Renaissance Revisited

In the last 20 years a Ferenczi Renaissance has been slowly building. There has been a rediscovery of the significance of Sándor Ferenczi, who can be considered the clinical genius of psychoanalysis. The politics of psychoanalysis led to the suppression of Ferenczi's ideas, removing his influence from psychoanalysis for about 50 years. Ferenczi's ideas and methods significantly deviated from his mentor, Sigmund Freud; he offered an alternative theory, The Confusion of Tongues and a new method, Relaxation Therapy. Ferenczi's pioneering contributions to analytic therapy include: the introduction of empathy into the analytic relationship; the curative function of the relationship in the analytic encounter; the role of activity in analytic therapy; the importance of non-interpretative behavior by the analyst; the function of the experiential and emotional dimensions in analytic therapy; analyst self-disclosure; and mutual analysis.     

Sándor Ferenczi's Ideas and Methods and Their Relevance to Group Psychotherapy

Over the last 20years, I have been attempting to translate Ferenczi's significant discoveries into contemporary clinical practice. There are five basic Ferenczian concepts upon which I have elaborated a contemporary version, relevant for the conduct of an analytic group. The presentation of group interaction illustrates these five dimensions: 1. Confusion of Tongues Theory and Trauma; 2. Compassionate Confrontation; 3. Judicious Self-Disclosure; 4. Reparative Therapeutic Experiences; and 5. Group as Therapist to the Group Analyst.     

Issues of Power, Control, and Status in Group Interaction: From Ferenczi to Foucault

Examination of the issues of power, control, and status in human interaction is made from the works of Kafka, Ferenczi, and Foucault. Ferenczi's confusion of tongues theory as a model is used to describe the dynamics of charismatic group leadership in training group for analyst group candidates.     

Combined Group and Individual Psychoanalysis: An Antidote to Ferenczi's Identification with the Aggressor

Ferenczi's recommendations that analysts not only listen to their patient's criticisms but encourage them to be so bold as to speak up when they disagree is facilitated in a combined group and individual psychoanalysis. Because group analysis occurs in the presence of others and with the participation of others, it acts as a protection against an identification with the aggressor that can occur when the therapeutic dyad is isolated from outside influence. Case examples from a combined psychoanalysis as well as a combined supervision are given to demonstrate these points.     

Ferenczi's Clinical and Theoretical Conception of Trauma: A Brief Introductory Map

In this paper, I am going to limit myself to tracing a map of the principal points in Ferenczi's thinking concerning trauma. Ferenczi's contribution to trauma theory is fundamental, even though up to today--in spite of the recent "Ferenczian Renaissance"--it still remains for many psychoanalysts simply not acknowledged and not considered and, when it is acknowledged and considered, it is frequently misunderstood or reported only in part. Perhaps this is because passages of his theory are extrapolated without knowing his entire clinical theoretical way or because he is quoted through others without the authors having personally read his work. These last ones are typical habits, as we know, to project one's own ideas, especially our prejudices.     

With Ferenczi,The Contemporary Psychoanalyst is <Emphasis Type="Italic">Other</Emphasis>

Ferenczi's main interests centered on the clinical situation, and through them he felt the need to reformulate, discard and expand many aspects of existing theory to the extent that, in my opinion, he succeeded in constructing a specifically Ferenczian metapsychological conception. After briefly outlining the essentials of Ferenczi's theoretical concepts-highlighting above all the importance given to the interaction with others in psychic configuration and functioning-I go the opposite way, in a "mutatis mutandis" game, "deducing", as though they did not already exist and had to be invented, the technical and clinical approaches implied by this said metapsychology once it is constructed. One conclusion is that a psychoanalysis in tune with Ferenczi's conceptions is different from the one that ruled in the last century and in which a preferably solipsistic reading of Freud was dominant. Moreover, due to reasons that I will attempt to explain, today's psychoanalyst must stop thinking of himself as an absence (this is how I see the so-called "cure type" and others similar to it), and operate as a true other in a vivid relation with the patient.     

Could Balint Have Done More for Ferenczi?

After Ferenczi's death of pernicious anemia in 1933 at the age of 59, Michael Balint became the greatest advocate of his late analyst, teacher, colleague, and friend. He was faced with widespread avoidance, a conspiracy of silence against Ferenczi in the psychoanalytic movement. Ernest Jones, in particular, an analysand of Ferenczi and fellow member of the Secret Committee founded by Freud before World War I, seriously attacked Ferenczi. In the third volume of the Freud biography, Jones alleged that in the last years of his life Ferenczi suffered mental deterioration caused by the pernicious anemia, and that this mental decline was the real cause of Ferenczi's technical experimentations, thereby belittling the importance of Ferenczi's independent work in the last phase of his life. This article answers whether Michael Balint, who later became the literary executor of Ferenczi, was devoted enough in countering the charges that lead to a fifty-year silence on Ferenczi's eminent place in psychoanalysis. Correspondence between Balint and Jones is cited, as are reports of Ferenczi's contemporaries; Balint's efforts are placed within the context of the psychoanalytic rivalries after Freud's death.     

The Object Relations Technique by Herbert Phillipson

AIDS has a unique set of characteristics that makes group psychotherapy more complex than with other populations: (1) the threat of an early death, (2) a highly variable course of illness, and (3) stigma related to the illness and to the preexisting lifestyles of most patients. The specific ways in which the three factors seriously interfere with establishing and maintaining group cohesion are discussed, and clinical guidelines are suggested. In addition, a model for understanding and working with these and other issues in group psychotherapy, based on Erik Erikson's interpersonal theory of development, is presented. Finally, particular countertransferential difficulties are discussed in relation to the heightened emotionality common to AIDS psychotherapy groups.     

The Development of an Analytic Perspective in the Group Leader: Some Basic Thoughts

Previous experience working with individuals on a one-to-one basis along with previous analytic therapy are important prerequisites for analytic group training. Training must emphasize understanding of group-as-a-whole processes, such as basic assumption life, complex transference manifestations, as well as awareness of one's countertransference toward individuals, subgroups and the group-as-a-whole. Specific concepts derived from object-relations theory such as projective identification are crucial to master. Personal analytic group therapy is recommended.     

Creative Group Living in a Children's Institution Edited by Susanne Schulze

Psychoanalytic psychotherapy is not well developed in Japan (Kotani, 1996). Until recently, group psychotherapy in particular has not been well received by patients or clinicians. Cultural difficulties in using group psychotherapy with Japanese patients have now been overcome and a theory of systematic intervention techniques has been developed. The basic dynamic factors of group psychotherapy such as culturally embedded aspects of social and personality structure are analyzed in this article. Culture-bound psychodynamic characteristics of Japanese patients as activated and worked through in the group process are first described with case illustrations. A systemic hypothesis linking cultural and psychodynamic structure is then delineated and the focal points of interventions are explained in terms of the field dynamics of social structure and boundary dynamics of personality structure.     

Introducing humanistic group counselling for somatisation in a primary care practice: Preliminary findings

Can group counselling help patients who present with symptoms that cannot be explained medically? Preliminary results of working with one such group are reported. Six patients in a primary care practice were offered weekly sessions for half a year. The findings suggest that the patients attended all group sessions. The patients reported experiences known to be related to group counselling, and when the group ended, patient reports show that the severity of their problems was reduced significantly (p<.001). Furthermore, during the six months after the group ended patients significantly (p<.025) reduced their visits to their general practitioners. These results seem to call for wider use of humanistic group counselling with somatising patients and further research into the impact of such form of counselling.     

Not “Filed Away as Finally Dealt With”

This essay considers some historical, clinical, and personal dimensions of Sandor Ferenczi's contributions to psychoanalysis. It uses a clinical framework to develop a new perspective of the Freud–Ferenczi relation (and of its impact on the development of psychoanalysis), which despite smoldering conflict, persisted for twenty-five years and was Freud's longest-lasting intimate friendship. A case is made for the open, undefensive, experience-drenched basis of Ferenczi's work to assure its continuing usefulness to the psychoanalyst of today, which, as is demonstrated, can lead in surprising directions.     

Developments in Psychoanalysis by Leon Salzman

This paper examines the evolution of contemporary psychoanalytic group theory and practice in the United States. There is a brief survey of the evolution of American group treatment, which acknowledges the work of early pioneers and the influence of theorists from other countries.

Over the years, divergent views have emerged regarding the value of focusing on group dynamics and interpretations versus individual dynamics in a group setting. Some of these views are explored.

The balance of the paper is devoted to summarizing the concepts of influential, contemporary American theorists who stress the unique opportunity and the theoretical base afforded by the group milieu in applying psychoanalytic understanding and working through individual and group dynamics therapeutically.     

Cognitive-behavioral,solution-focused life coaching: Enhancing goal striving,well-being,and hope

Research is in its infancy in the newly emerging field of coaching psychology. This study examined the effects of a 10-week cognitive-behavioral, solution-focused life coaching group programme. Participants were randomly allocated to a life coaching group programme (n =?28) or a waitlist control group (n =?28). Participation in the life coaching group programme was associated with significant increases in goal striving, well-being and hope, with gains maintained up to 30 weeks later on some variables. Hope theory may explain such positive outcomes. Life coaching programmes that utilize evidence-based techniques may provide a framework for further research on psychological processes that occur in non-clinical populations who wish to make purposeful change and enhance their positive psychological functioning.     

The Nature of the Co-Therapy Relationship

Termination is a complex phase in the total therapeutic process. Criteria for termination of long-term analytic group therapy encompass both intrapsychic and behavioral changes. One of the useful ways of conceptualizing the termination phase is in terms of the issues of separation-individuation. Three different kinds of termination that can occur and the techniques for working with each are described. Multiple transferences are worked with in the long-term analytic group and both real and transferential losses acknowledged. The ability to leave group therapy with a stronger, better defined sense of self is one of the goals of therapy.     

Elasticity of Technique: The Psychoanalytic Project and the Trajectory of Ferenczi's Life

The object of this paper is the Elasticity of Psychoanalytic Technique in the work of Sándor Ferenczi. The author sustains that this can be considered neither as an ultimate arrival point nor as a particular stage of Ferenczi's clinical–theoretical body of work, but rather as an ensemble of affective qualities, attitudes and values, which he gradually developed through experience, signalling a paradigm shift in the history of psychoanalysis. The following areas will be explored: the new sensitivity demonstrated by Ferenczi concerning the relational and communicative factors present in the analytic session, his subtle and acute attention to the participation of the analyst's own subjectivity in the therapeutic process, and how these enduring elements of Ferenczi's technique anticipate several significant future developments in psychoanalysis.     

How trainees develop an initial theory of practice: A process model of tentative identifications

Aim: The increasing importance of integrative practice highlights the need to explore how trainees develop their theoretical stance. This investigation explored the experiences of trainees to elaborate a model of how they developed their personal theories of practice. Method: Seventeen Masters level trainee counsellors kept weekly journals recording how they developed a working theory of practice. Grounded theory analysis of the journals was used to develop a model of the process. Findings: The resulting Process Model of Tentative Identifications illustrates how a personal theory developed through trainees' tentative identifications with theories of practice, and how factors such as reading, personal philosophy, practice, and supervision interact to produce the identifications. A diagram of the model highlights the relationships among a variety of personal and professional factors that ranged from highly abstract to concrete and practice-based. Discussion: The model is consistent with several factors identified in previous research and highlights how trainees develop working theories of practice.     

数学焦虑影响儿童数学任务表现的作用机制探析

研究设计了心算加法和图形旋转/平移两类数学任务,同时采用《儿童数学焦虑问卷》、工作记忆和抑制任务,以探讨数学焦虑影响儿童数学任务表现的作用机制.213名小学五年级儿童参与研究,其中89人参与正式实验.结果发现:(1)数学焦虑与数学成绩呈显著负相关;(2)高数学焦虑组在工作记忆和两类数学任务中的得分均显著低于低数学焦虑组,而两组在抑制任务指标上差异不显著;(3)言语工作记忆和视空间工作记忆是数学焦虑影响心算加法任务的完全中介变量;视空间工作记忆是数学焦虑影响图形旋转/平移任务的完全中介变量,言语工作记忆是二者关系的调节变量.研究结果支持了加工效能理论.