Ferenczi Influence on Contemporary Psychoanalytic Traditions ― Lines of Development - Evolution of Theory and Practice over the Decades

This collection covers all the topics relevant for understanding the importance of Sandor Ferenczi and his influence on contemporary psychoanalysis. Pre-eminent Ferenczi scholars were solicited to contribute succint reviews of their fields of expertise.

The book is divided in five sections. 'The historico-biographical' describes Ferenczi's childhood and student days, his marriage, brief analyses with Freud, his correspondences and contributions to daily press in Budapest, list of his patients' true identities, and a paper about his untimely death. 'The development of Ferenczi's ideas' reviews his ideas before his first encounter with psychoanalysis, his relationship with peers, friendship with Groddeck, emancipation from Freud, and review of the importance of his Clinical Diary. The third section reviews Ferenczi's clinical concepts and work: trauma, unwelcome child, wise baby, identification with aggressor, mutual analysis, and many others. In 'Echoes', we follow traces of Ferenczi's influence on virtually all traditions in contemporary psychoanalysis: interpersonal, independent, Kleinian, Lacanian, relational, etc.

Aleksandar Dimitrijevic, PhD, is interim professor of psychoanalysis and clinical psychology at the International Psychoanalytic University, Berlin, Germany.

Gabriele Cassullo is a psychologist, psychotherapist, doctor in research in human sciences and interim professor in psychology at the Department of Psychology, University of Turin. He researches and publishes on the history, theory, and technique of psychoanalysis.

Jay Frankel is an Adjunct Clinical Associate Professor and Clinical Consultant in the New York University Postdoctoral Program in Psychotherapy and Psychoanalysis; Faculty at the Institute for Psychoanalytic Training and Research, and at the Trauma Studies Program at the Manhattan Institute for Psychoanalysis, both in New York.