Sándor Ferenczi (July 16, 1873 – May 22, 1933) was a Hungarian psychoanalyst, one of Sigmund Freud’s most notable followers, famous for his humanistic approach to psychoanalysis and his efforts in treating child abuse. Ferenczi tried to improve psychoanalytic techniques, recognizing that therapists need to develop a closer, more empathetic relationship with their patients to support the healing process.
However, this approach was severely criticized by Freud, who viewed the therapist as the dominant, subjective position in the relationship and advised strongly against emotional involvement between therapist and patient. As Ferenczi separated from Freud, his work advanced the humanistic approach and recognized the reality of child abuse, but he also encountered difficulties along the lines Freud predicted.
Life
Ferenczi was born in Miskolc, Austria-Hungary, on July 16, 1873, the eighth of twelve children. His family was of Jewish origins, and received great amount of anti-semitic persecution. Ferenczi’s childhood and adolescence was thus rather difficult. His father owned a local bookstore, a favorite gathering place of many Hungarian Nationalists, where he secretly published material against Austrian domination. When Sándor was fifteen, his father died, leaving a significant void in his son's life. Sándor created an idealistic picture of his father as a resistance hero against Habsburg’s Austria.
At the age of 24, Ferenczi received his M.D. from the University of Vienna. He served as an army doctor for several years, specializing in neurology and neuropathology. But again his Jewish origins prevented him from obtaining a well-paid job. He was hired as a physician in a hospital for the poor, working with prostitutes, criminals, and other misfortunate classes of society. This experience, however, influenced Ferenczi—leading him to advocate for change in working conditions in hospitals. His main objection was against the relationship between doctor and patient based on a vertical hierarchy. Ferenczi argued that physicians should not set themselves in a superior position above their patients, but rather that they need to “come down” among the patients, regarding and respecting their patients’ opinions.
On February 2, 1908, Ferenczi met Freud, a friendship that would last for 25 years. Ferenczi became a member of Freud’s “inner circle” of the Vienna Psychoanalytic Society. Their extensive correspondence is collected in the three-volume The Correspondence of Sigmund Freud and Sandor Ferenczi (1993, 1996, 2000).
In 1913 Ferenczi founded the Hungarian Psychoanalytic Society, and in 1919 became a full-time professor of psychoanalysis at the University of Budapest. By the end of his career, Ferenczi drifted away from the mainstream of psychoanalytical theory, resulting in a break with Sigmund Freud. He helped found the International Journal of Psycho-Analysis, and served as a president of the International Psychoanalytic Society.
Ferenczi died in 1933. He suffered from the deleterious effects of pernicious anemia, which, it was speculated, was enhanced by some mental problems he developed by the end of his life. He was married to an older woman, with whom he had no children.
Work
Ferenczi was one of Freud’s closest disciples, dedicated to Freud's work and to psychoanalysis. However, he eventually came to criticize some psychoanalytic methods, objecting that psychoanalysis was overly intellectual, and that the therapist needed instead to be affectionate and empathetic. That attacked the core of psychoanalytical method, which always regarded therapists in the subject position toward patients. Freud warned Ferenczi that being affectionate toward patients could lead to sexual affairs between patients and therapists. Ferenczi, however, believed that it was possible—and even necessary—to create a genuine, affectionate relationship between a therapist and a patient in order for the patient to open up and for healing to take place.
Ferenczi tried to improve the techniques used in psychoanalysis. He believed that the technique of "free association" would be more effective if patients abstained from sexual and other pleasurable activities before therapy, since avoiding such activities would cause libido (emotional energy) to build up which could then be expressed fully during therapy, facilitating the healing process. His idea proved counterproductive though, as some patients expressed intense hostility due to tension and sexual frustration, and so Ferenczi abandoned that idea.
In 1924, Ferenczi, together with Otto Rank, published The Development of Psychoanalysis, in which he suggested that in treatment of neurotic patients it was not necessary for patients to recollect every traumatic memory and then modify it, but instead that there were other methods reaching the same goal. In his work Thalassa: A Theory of Genitality (1924), Ferenczi suggested that the patient’s wish to return to the comfort of the womb symbolized their wish to return to the origin of life—the sea. Both ideas received serious criticism from psychoanalysts, causing the rift between Freud and Ferenczi open up further.
Ferenczi is best remembered for his work on the treatment of child abuse. In his 1932 paper Confusion of Tongues Between Adults and the Child, Ferenczi argued that abuse can be both physical and psychological, and the two are often intertwined. Patients’ memories of sexual abuse were not only instinct-driven fantasies, as Freud believed, but often real memories of real traumatic events (often sexual in nature). He noted that abuse could lead to identification with the aggressor, where the child became attuned to the aggressor and wanted to help alleviate the aggressor’s suffering. When in therapy, the child would transfer those feelings to the therapist, wanting unconditionally to please them. According to Ferenczi, therapists are often unaware of such a dynamic. Ferenczi, therefore, recommended a loving and permissive atmosphere during therapy, through which the therapist counterbalances the rejection and abuse the patient received from their parents or other adults. Ferenczi even suggested a therapist needs to express his affection openly toward the patient, encouraging the patient to act out his childhood experiences. Freud’s followers rejected this technique.
Legacy
Ferenczi influenced many subsequent psychotherapists. Traces of his influence can be found in Melanie Klein's interpersonal dynamics (e.g. between mother and infant), Clara Thompson's interpersonal approach to psychotherapy, and Michael Balint's idea of “primary object love.” His influence can also be seen in later French psychoanalysts, such as Jacques Lacan, as well as in “relational” psychoanalysts in the United States.
Ferenczi’s emphasis on a loving and genuine relationship between therapist and patient made him one of the early pioneers of humanistic psychology, the predecessor of such psychologists as Erich Fromm and Carl Rogers.
Major Publications
- Ferenczi, Sandor. 1920. "General theory of the neuroses." International Journal of Psychoanalysis 1: 294-315.
- Ferenczi, Sandor. 1923. "Social considerations in some analyses." International Journal of Psychoanalysis 4: 475-478.
- Ferenczi, Sandor & Otto Rank. 1986 (original 1924). Development of Psychoanalysis (Classics in Psychoanalysis, Monograph 4). International Universities Press. ISBN 0823611973
- Ferenczi, Sandor. 1925. "Psycho-analysis of sexual habits." International Journal of Psychoanalysis 6: 372-404.
- Ferenczi, Sandor. 1931. "Child-analysis in the analysis of adults." International Journal of Psychoanalysis 12: 468-482
- Ferenczi, Sandor. 1932. "Confusion of Tongues Between Adults and the Child." International Journal of Psychoanalysis.
- Ferenczi, Sandor. 1989 (original 1934). Thalassa: A Theory of Genitality. H. Karnac Books, Ltd. ISBN 0946439613
- Ferenczi, Sandor. 1949. "Psychoanalysis and education." International Journal of Psychoanalysis 30: 220-224.
- Ferenczi, Sandor. 1994 (original 1952). First Contributions to Psycho-Analysis, (Ernest Jones, trans.). H. Karnac Books, Ltd. ISBN 1855750856
- Ferenczi, Sandor. 1994 (original 1955). Final Contributions to the Problems & Methods of Psycho-Analysis. H. Karnac Books, Ltd. ISBN 1855750872
- Ferenczi, Sandor. 1963. "Spiritism." Psychoanalytical Review 50: 139-144.
- Ferenczi, Sandor and Sigmund Freud. 1993. The Correspondence of Sigmund Freud and Sándor Ferenczi, Volume 1: 1908-1914. Eva Brabant, (ed.). Cambridge, MA: Belknap Press of Harvard University Press. ISBN 0674174186
- Ferenczi, Sandor and Sigmund Freud. 1996. The Correspondence of Sigmund Freud and Sándor Ferenczi, Volume 2: 1914-1919. Eva Brabant and Ernst Falzeder (eds.). Cambridge, MA: Belknap Press of Harvard University Press. ISBN 0674174194
- Ferenczi, Sandor & Sigmund Freud. 2000. The Correspondence of Sigmund Freud and Sándor Ferenczi, Volume 3: 1920-1933. Eva Brabant and Ernst Falzeder (eds.). Cambridge, MA: Belknap Press of Harvard University Press. ISBN 0674002970
ReferencesISBN links support NWE through referral fees
- Balint, Michael. 1949. "Sandor Ferenczi, obituary 1933." International Journal of Psychoanalysis 30: 215-219.
- Harris, Adrienne & Lewis Aron (eds.). 1996. Legacy of Sandor Ferenczi. Analytic Press. ISBN 0881631493
- Keve, Tom. 2000. Triad: the physicists, the analysts, the kabbalists. London: Rosenberger & Krausz. ISBN 0953621901
- Rudnytsky, Peter L. 2000. Ferenczi's Turn in Psychoanalysis. New York University Press. ISBN 0814775454
- Stanton, Martin. 1991. Sandor Ferenczi: Reconsidering Active Intervention. Jason Aronson Publishers. ISBN 0876685696
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