The Clinical Diary of Sandor Ferenczi

by Sándor Ferenczi, Judith Dupont, Michael Balint, Nicola Zarday Jackson

Overview

In the half-century since his death, the Hungarian analyst Sándor Ferenczi has amassed an influential following within the psychoanalytic community. During his lifetime Ferenczi, a respected associate and intimate of Freud, unleashed widely disputed ideas that influenced greatly the evolution of modern psychoanalytic technique and practice. In a sequence of short, condensed entries, Sándor Ferenczi’s Diary records self-critical reflections on conventional theory—as well as criticisms of Ferenczi’s own experiments with technique—and his obstinate struggle to divest himself and psychoanalysis of professional hypocrisy. From these pages emerges a hitherto unheard voice, speaking to his heirs with startling candor and forceful originality—a voice that still resonates in the continuing debates over the nature of the relationship in psychoanalytic practice.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780674135277
Publisher:	Harvard University Press
Publication date:	03/19/1995
Pages:	256
Product dimensions:	6.12(w) x 9.25(h) x 0.65(d)

About the Author

Judith Dupont is a psychoanalyst and lives in Paris.

Table of Contents

Editor's Note

Acknowledgments

Introduction by Judith Dupont

Abbreviations

The Clinical Diary of Sándor Ferenczi

Draft Introduction by Michael Balint

Notes for a Preface by Michael Balint

Index

Editorial Reviews

Freud criticised his one-time favourite son for advocating the ‘kissing technique’; Ferenczi believed that ‘only sympathy heals’. This is the 1932 record of his analyses. His work was faltering, doubting, and quite possibly, healing.

The Week - David Flusfeder

Compelling… Ferenczi was an innovator, an experimenter, someone who was always trying new approaches to the treatment of mental illness, even when his unorthodox techniques placed him in opposition to his analyst and mentor, Sigmund Freud.

Stuart Schneiderman

Allows the public interested in such matters to assess, far better than before, the range of [Ferenczi’s] professional gifts and the depth of his psychological vulnerability… A welcome addition to the growing number of significant texts illuminating the history of psychoanalysis.

London Review of Books - Peter Gay

The Diary is the work of a sane mind in full possession of its powers and gives us insight into the day-to-day thoughts of a practitioner whose status as a creative innovator is probably unsurpassed since Freud. It is a very moving book. One is continually amazed by the courage of the man.

Times Literary Supplement - Peter Lomas

Allows the public interested in such matters to assess, far better than before, the range of [Ferenczi's] professional gifts and the depth of his psychological vulnerability... A welcome addition to the growing number of significant texts illuminating the history of psychoanalysis.--Peter Gay "London Review of Books"

Compelling... Ferenczi was an innovator, an experimenter, someone who was always trying new approaches to the treatment of mental illness, even when his unorthodox techniques placed him in opposition to his analyst and mentor, Sigmund Freud.--Stuart Schneiderman "New York Times Book Review"

Freud criticised his one-time favourite son for advocating the 'kissing technique'; Ferenczi believed that 'only sympathy heals'. This is the 1932 record of his analyses. His work was faltering, doubting, and quite possibly, healing.--David Flusfeder "The Week"

The Diary is the work of a sane mind in full possession of its powers and gives us insight into the day-to-day thoughts of a practitioner whose status as a creative innovator is probably unsurpassed since Freud. It is a very moving book. One is continually amazed by the courage of the man.--Peter Lomas "Times Literary Supplement"

From the Publisher

Freud criticised his one-time favourite son for advocating the 'kissing technique', Ferenzci believed that 'only sympathy heals'. This is the 1932 record of his analyses. His work was faltering, doubting, and quite possibly, healing.
— David Flusfeder

The Week

The Diary is the work of a sane mind in full possession of its powers and gives us insight into the day-to-day thoughts of a practitioner whose status as a creative innovator is probably unsurpassed since Freud. It is a very moving book. One is continually amazed by the courage of the man.
— Peter Lomas

Times Literary Supplement

Allows the public to assess, far better than before, the range of [Ferenczi's] professional gifts and the depth of his psychological vulnerability...A welcome addition to the growing number of significant texts illuminating the history of psychoanalysis.
— Peter Gay

London Review of Books

Compelling...Ferenczi was an innovator, an experimenter, someone who was always trying new approaches to the treatment of mental illness, even when his unorthodox techniques placed him in opposition to his analyst and mentor, Sigmund Freud.
— Stuart Schneiderman

New York Times Book Review

Compelling… Ferenczi was an innovator, an experimenter, someone who was always trying new approaches to the treatment of mental illness, even when his unorthodox techniques placed him in opposition to his analyst and mentor, Sigmund Freud.

New York Times Book Review - Stuart Schneiderman