The Environment of Ferenczi’s Clinical Diary

The author evokes the tragic death of Ferenczi’s colleague and analysand Dr. Elisabeth Radó-Révész in 1923. She died of pernicious anemia, the same illness that ended the life of Ferenczi 10 years later, at age 59. Can this be a tragic coincidence? Following notes in Ferenczi’s Clinical Diary, the author considers the deep disappointments both Ferenczi and Radó-Révész had experienced and explores some of the Tragic Man qualities of Ferenczi.     

Sändor Ferenczi

Abstract

This essay will explore the early contributions of Sändor Ferenczi and their relationship to current psychodynamic perspectives on short-term treatment. Ferenczi'S development of the “active technique” and his later collaboration with Otto Rank influenced the works of Alexander and French, and the later writings of Malan, Davanloo, Sifneos, and Mann. Ferenczi'S emphasis on here-and-now transference interpretations and the importance of the patient'S emotional experience in treatment have proven to be enduring contributions to contemporary psychoanalytic practice.     

The Freud–Ferenczi controversy in light of Emma Eckstein's circumcisio

Abstract

Emma Eckstein's circumcision trauma has been powerfully suppressed, denied, and dissociated from the history of the origins of psychoanalysis. Even though Freud did not categorize it as a trauma, he was deeply impacted by it in the period when he provided psychoanalysis with his foundation. Despite Freud's intellectual erasure of the trauma that Emma experienced, her “cut” never ceased to unconsciously break through Freud's fantasies and discourse, haunting the psychoanalytic building as a veritable ghost. Sándor Ferenczi became the recipient of what Freud could not consider in his own mind, and his revision of the “Bausteine” (building blocks) of psychoanalysis featured an attempt to heal the split embedded in the foundation of psychoanalysis.     

The Freud–Ferenczi dialogue after the formulation of the Second Topic

The author proposes to examine the scientific dialogue established by Freud and Ferenczi between 1920 and 1933 after Freud’s formulation of the Second Topic, the Pleasure Principle. It is very informative to explore the closeness of some formulations of Freud with the more important clinical and metapsychological intuitions of Ferenczi. The role of repetition, the value of affects, the second theory of anxiety, the elasticity of the psychoanalytical technique and the problem of traumatism are some of aspects developed in this paper.

     

The clinical language of Sándor Ferenczi: Introductory and methodological considerations

Abstract

Reflecting in the present paper on the legitimacy of a work to collect together the ideas, concepts, and terms of Sándor Ferenczi, the author will explore, through a series of questions and answers, the following points: why it is so clear-cut that Ferenczi should be included in the company of those great psychoanalytic authors who might be deemed entitled to such a study; whether Ferenczi possessed his own language, and if this was the case, when and how he acquired it; what we mean when we refer to Ferenczi’s idiomatic language, and how we can profitably identify this language and bring it into focus; how, in practice, such a text should be organized; what its audience and function would be; and how it would be used by readers and students of Ferenczi.     

Ferenczi’s Ethics for Our Time: The Possibility of Being Alongside

Ferenczi’s practice and therapeutic ethics as exemplified in the Clinical Diary reveal a profound sensitivity to the questions of authority and freedom. This paper will engage with the ways in which these questions have been taken up elsewhere and have become central to post-war extensions of the psychoanalytic field, such as group analysis. A particular comparison will be made with group analytic notions of leadership and horizontal ways of relating, that is, how to be alongside one another. It will be suggested that the translatability of Ferenczi for our time reveals the adaptability of psychoanalysis to different and changing socio-political contexts.     

Ferenczi’s Revolutionary Therapeutic Approach*

Many of the revolutionary principles introduced by Ferenczi in his clinical practice have now been widely accepted especially in the field of trauma and trauma therapy. Examples of these innovative views include his emphasis on empathy as opposed to technical neutrality and his stress on the real conditions of child caring and family environmental deficits and on the consequences of interpersonal violence and abuse that lead to “identification with the aggressor” by the victim thereby resulting in the internalization of both aggressiveness and guilt (the split guilt of the abuser). The resulting “fragmentation” of the personality, which is now considered dissociation (instead of Freud’s “repression”), is at the root of several severe disorders, characterized by distortion of reality, loss of touch with one’s body and loss of trust in the other. Therefore “abreaction is not enough”. A new, positive relational experience must be re-inscribed at the level of implicit memory.     

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.     

Ferenczi and Jung: some parallel lines?1

In the complexity of the entangled interactions within the group of psychoanalytical pionneers, their divergent interests and views, the Ferenczi-Jung relationship is of particular interest given the importance that both had in the field of the history of ideas. It is striking to discover some parallel lines, but interpersonal, institutional and socio-cultural factors contributed to the fact that this peaceful and complementary collaboration was not possible in the long run. Perhaps for the present generation, in retrospective, it is easier to notice seminal strokes and also some deficiencies in all these thinkers.     

Sándor Ferenczi und der Institutionskonflikt der Psychoanalyse

By the foundation of the International Psychoanalytical Association by Freud, Jung and Ferenczi the “psychoanalytic movement” joined into regulated tracks. Thus, the project “Psychoanalysis”, a project in the spirit of the “Aufklärung”, which had prescribed itself to individualistic autonomy, got into breach. In this contribution the reasons are reflected in regard to the establishment as non-university science and the threat of marginalization. They objected Freud’s pretension of influence and belonging. It is unclear why it was explicitly Sándor Ferenczi who was designated to be the precursor of that foundation. He was initially a critical opponent of Freud’s thoughts. His biography illustrates that the institutionalization of psychoanalysis happened too early and that this brought scientific isolation and personal distress over his life when, at the end of his life, he strived for emanzipation in his relationship to Freud.     

Splitting,fragmenting, and mental agony: the clinical thinking of Sándor Ferenczi

Following a thorough study of the Clinical Diary (1932), the author aims to put forward Sándor Ferenczi's theoretical discoveries, which allow him to settle a very advanced clinical consideration. The main parameters of this consideration foreshadow those that, in the following decades, were to be at the centre of some of the most significant developments in psychoanalysis, in particular those of M. Klein, W. R. Bion and D. W. Winnicott.     

Ferenczi and Winnicott: Searching for a “Missing Link” (of the Soul)

The aim of this paper is to present the close link between Ferenczi's and Winnicott's theoretical, clinical and therapeutic thought, indicating how this link has become something of a “missing link” in the history of psychoanalytic ideas, an implication which we retain, in part, to this day. In the first part entitled “Who's speaking to whom?”, I aim to explore the contents of the most essential parts of their messages, stressing the similarities and differences between them, and citing the most important authors whom they address (Freud for Ferenczi, Klein for Winnicott). In the second part, I aim to tackle the general direction underlying both their work and their lives, concentrating specifically on “the maternal”, and examining the repercussions of this aspect on psychoanalytic technique and practice. In the third part, as a kind of “Parting”, I will present further brief conclusions on the relevance and significance of their thoughts in modern day psychoanalysis, defining Ferenczi and Winnicott as “founders of future discursiveness”.     

Ferenczi’s Collaboration with Rank: On Paradigm Shift and the Origins of Complementarity in Psychoanalysis

The publication in 1923 of Sigmund Freud's The Ego and the Id is generally recognized as a watershed event in the history of psychoanalysis. The following year Ferenczi and Rank jointly published a book on psychoanalytic technique, The Development of Psychoanalysis (Ger: Entwicklungsziele der Psychoanalyse), concurrently with the independent publication of Ferenczi's Thalassa: A Theory of Genitality (Ger: Versuch einer Genitaltheorie) and Rank's The Trauma of Birth, the latter of which sparked a storm of controversy within the psychoanalytic community. The ensuing debate over technical and theoretical issues raised in these works signaled the emergence of two rival paradigms (following the model described by Thomas Kuhn) in psychoanalytic technique, the one based on ego psychology and drive-dynamics, the other on preoedipal ego development and object relations, which, when viewed from a present-day vantage point, may be considered complementary. The current crisis in psychoanalysis represents a continuation of this not yet completed paradigm shift.     

Sándor Ferenczi,A Classical and Contemporary Psychoanalyst

The American Journal of Psychoanalysis - The article intends to show how Ferenczi is a genuine precursor for many of the themes which lie at the center of the current psychoanalytic...     

The Rank–Ferenczi Relationship,as Seen from France

Seen from France, where Rank's “American” work is not well known, the Rank–Ferenczi relationship does not allow to state that the two learned colleagues were the best friends. Rank met Ferenczi in 1908, but their most valuable and fruitful working relationship is limited to the 1922–1924 time period. Their working relationship must be read in light of the unique transference links of each to Freud, and in light of the tormented history of the analytic movement, especially after the First World War. The sensible reader will not forget that after the fast extinction of their short collaboration they continued their own works in their own ways, Otto Rank in Paris and in America and Sándor Ferenczi in Budapest. No more friends, nor enemies, but both, in a different style, brave and creative analysts.     

“Yours,Thirsty for Honesty,Ferenczi”: Some Background to Sandor Ferenczi's Pursuit of Mutuality

The American Journal of Psychoanalysis -     

“Uterus Loquitur”: Trauma and the Human Organism in Ferenczi’s “Physiology of Pleasure”

The paper reconstructs Ferenczi’s unique and largely neglected physiology of pleasure. It highlights the prominent place of the libido in Ferenczi’s writings, the transition from the physiology of use to the physiology of pleasure and the role of trauma in Ferenczi’s work with a special emphasis on the beauty and plasticity of the body, the relations between its organs as well as the adaptive potential, the Orphic powers, and the natural vigor of the human organism. Ferenczi’s theoretical assumptions and his powerful images of the human organism are examined in the light of Goethe’s, Schopenhauer’s, and Nietzsche’s philosophies.     

Ferenczi’s Concept of Identification with The Aggressor: Understanding Dissociative Structure with Interacting Victim and Abuser Self-States

No one has described more passionately than Ferenczi the traumatic induction of dissociative trance with its resulting fragmentation of the personality. Ferenczi introduced the concept and term, identification with the aggressor in his seminal “Confusion of Tongues” paper, in which he described how the abused child becomes transfixed and robbed of his senses. Having been traumatically overwhelmed, the child becomes hypnotically transfixed by the aggressor’s wishes and behavior, automatically identifying by mimicry rather than by a purposeful identification with the aggressor’s role. To expand upon Ferenczi’s observations, identification with the aggressor can be understood as a two-stage process. The first stage is automatic and initiated by trauma, but the second stage is defensive and purposeful. While identification with the aggressor begins as an automatic organismic process, with repeated activation and use, gradually it becomes a defensive process. Broadly, as a dissociative defense, it has two enacted relational parts, the part of the victim and the part of the aggressor. This paper describes the intrapersonal aspects (how aggressor and victim self-states interrelate in the internal world), as well as the interpersonal aspects (how these become enacted in the external). This formulation has relevance to understanding the broad spectrum of the dissociative structure of mind, borderline personality disorder, and dissociative identity disorder.